The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

 

☆ ☆ ☆

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) – N. A. Oplev

A bit too sadistic for my liking but I guess there is no denying that the film succeeds in creating well-rounded characters, particularly that of Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), whose backstory may be fleshed out further in subsequent films, I gather. The plot is a rather conventional whodunnit, with journalist Mikael Blomkvist hired by Henrik Vanger (of the wealthy Vanger Corporation) to solve the 40-year old murder of his niece.  There’s a family full of suspects to investigate, all living nearby on a secluded island off the coast of Sweden. But what makes things different this time is the use of technology (primarily by hacker Lisbeth) to track down and analyse clues.  One wonders how a supercomputer (or future A. I. program) would perform at this same task.  I guess it wouldn’t end up risking its own life in a confrontation with the villain of the piece.  As could be expected, the mise-en-scene here is all wintry grey which sets the mood but feels cliché at this point (or perhaps all of those Scandinavian Noir tv series came after this?).  David Fincher remade this film for Hollywood but I’m not sure whether it is worth taking a look (at some distant point in the future) or even whether I should check out the subsequent two installments.  From the books by Stieg Larsson.