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[Movie Review] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

January 15, 2012 alvinology 3 Comments

The book was great. The movies too; both the 2009 Swedish version and the recently released 2011 US version.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – “Men Who Hate Women”) is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his Millennium Trilogy.

I have read all three books in the series and am mesmerised by the notion of a new age anti-heroine like Lisbeth Salander.

Thanks to Sony Pictures, I caught the Singapore gala premiere of the 2011 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara on 28 Dec 2011.

The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo movie poster

Having watched the 2009 Swedish movie and read the original novel, it was inevitable to draw comparisons.

The main character of Lisbeth Salander is the most important and Rooney Mara (born 1985), the lead actress in this latest release brings more youthfulness to the role than Noomi Rapace (born 1979) in the Swedish version:

This is how Mara looks like normally:

This is how Mara looks like as Lisbeth Salenger. The piercings on her nipples and nose are all real:

The transformation is amazing isn’t it?

Daniel Craig on the other hand, is too much of a familiar face for alpha-male-type movie characters like James Bond. Somehow, he seems to lack some sensitivity playing the lead character of Mikael Blomkvist. Nonetheless, Craig has strong screen presence and is always a delight to catch on the big screen.

Comparing this latest release to the Swedish release, there are more deviations from the original novel. However, the slight changes do give the movie a faster pacing and more adrenaline pumping action comparatively.

The book loyalists would probably prefer the Swedish release for sticking strictly to the original plot but I do understand the need for different adaptations of the same plot to suit different media. My vote goes to the 2011 release.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is now showing in Singapore cinemas and is rated R21 of course, given the mature themes. Go catch it just to see Rooney Mara’s transformation. Watch out the the next two sequels too. 🙂

Movie Trailer:

Synopsis:

“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is the first movie instalment based upon “The Millennium Trilogy” series by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It revolves around the tale of serial murder & corporate trickery, complicated international financial fraud and the buried evil past of a Swedish industrial family. In the movie, Mikael Blomkvist is a writer who recently loses a libel case against corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom and is sentenced to prison. Mikael Blomkvist was hired by Henrik Vanger to solve a forty-year-old mystery revolving the case of his missing great-niece. During the duration of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist accidentally gotten the help of Lisbeth Salander and both of them discover a long list of disturbing and shocking revelation involving the Vanger family.

books, movies, random musings

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium I) by Stieg Larsson

December 14, 2010 alvinology 3 Comments

It has been a while since I last picked up a book which arrested my attention so much as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The book is an award-winning crime novel and international bestseller by Swedish author and journalist, Stieg Larsson.

I devoured all 554 pages of the book in three days of back-to-back reading and is continuing to read the next book now, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

A little background about Larsson and his Millennium Trilogy, via Wikipedia:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – “Men Who Hate Women”) is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his Millennium Trilogy.

At his death in November 2004, Larsson left three unpublished novels that made up the trilogy. It became a posthumous best-seller in several European countries as well as in the United States. Larsson, who was disgusted by sexual violence, witnessed the gang rape of a young girl when he was 15. He never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth – like the young heroine of his books, herself a rape victim, which inspired the theme of sexual violence against women in his books.

Here’s a good summary of the book, written by Robert Dessaix of the Sydney Morning Herald, via Wikipedia:

An epic tale of serial murder and corporate trickery spanning several continents, the novel takes place in complicated international financial fraud and the buried evil past of a wealthy Swedish industrial family. Through its main character, it also references classic forebears of the crime thriller genre while its style mixes aspects of the sub-genres. There are references to Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, as well as Sue Grafton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Val McDermid, Elizabeth George, Sara Paretsky, and several other key authors of detective novels. A journalist and magazine editor in Stockholm until his death, Larsson reveals a knowledge and enjoyment of both English and American crime fiction. He declared that he wrote his opus for his own pleasure in the evenings after work.

Larsson is an angry man and obviously has an axe to grind with violent sex offenders, sadists; greedy capitalists, industrialists, financiers; and shoddy journalism. These themes were repeated throughout the book which tells a sick and twisted tale of multiple murders, crazy sex crimes and corporate greed.

This is definitely not reading material for minors.

Larsson’s characterisation of Lisbeth Salander, the heroine in the book can be interpreted as his way of seeking peace with himself for not helping to prevent a sex crime in his youth. Other than being a competent freelance investigator with a mysterious background, Salander is portrayed as a feminist vigilante of sort with a personal vendetta against violent sex offenders, preferring to serve justice her own way than turn to the law.

The other main character, Mikael Blomkvist, is modeled very similarly to Larsson himself. Blomkvist is a investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine who became an amateur detective when engaged by a rich industrialist to write a book about his family history. Like Blomkvist, Larsson publishes a magazine, Expo, which also experiences financial difficulties.

Other than dealing with the ugly side of sex and money, the book also casts morale questions on the responsibilities of criminals who experienced sordid, sad childhood. Should these people be held less responsible of the crime they committed?

This is an excellent piece of crime fiction coming from Sweden, a country which I do not know much about, beyond the fact that IKEA comes from there and they have long, hard winters.

For those who are lazy to read, there’s the movie version as well. I have yet to watch the movie, but here’s the trailer of The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo: