SWEDISH film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a crime mystery-drama-thriller that manages to grip its audience for more than two-and-a-half hours.
Working together, an investigative journalist and computer hacker with attitude solve a 40-year-old mystery and uncover a serial killer.
Based on Stieg Larson’s literary trilogy Millennium – which has sold over 12 million copies (Larson died aged 50 of a heart attack before the books were published) – the film is long, predominantly because its attention to detail drives the narrative.
Set in a scenic Swedish winter wonderland, the nasty hidden side of life is revealed in all its hatred and horror.
Danish director Niels Arden Oplev (Worlds Apart, We Shall Overcome) and writers Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg spend more time developing the hacker’s character (played by exciting newcomer Noomi Rapace) than the journalist’s, but the clean widescreen cinematography, the fluid editing and Jacob Groth’s trepidacious musical score, give meaning and understanding of what’s to come.
Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) – an investigative journalist who part owns and publishes the magazine Millennium – has just been committed to a short prison sentence for slandering the dodgy financier Wennerström.
With time before he must report to prison, he takes time off to further investigate Wennerström but before he can, he gets a call from a lawyer for him to meet with Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), the retired head of the Vanger companies, who lives on an island connected to the mainland by a road bridge, in northern Sweden.
Henrik wants Mikael to investigate the disappearance 40 years ago of his 16-year-old niece Harriet, whom he suspects was murdered by one of the Vanger family.
Yesterday’s post brought him something which suggests Harriet is still alive.
Officially, Mikael will be writing the history of the Vanger family.
With a large fee, a car and a house on the island, Mikael starts checking known facts, other Vanger family members living on the island and numerous family photos.
After finding his computer has been hacked, he’s led to Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) a Goth computer hacker with a tattoo, body metal and a troubled past, who has been hired to check up on Mikael.
Working together, they soon discover Vanger family members have a lot to answer for.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (MA15+)
Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube & Peter Haber
Rating: Four stars
Screening: Somerville Auditorium from March 15-21 at 7.30pm; and March 18-21 at 10.45pm; and Joondalup Pines, from March 22-28 at 7.30pm.