The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
Written by: Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg
Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace

Release date: 12 March
Cert: 18
Running Time: 150 mins


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the first of a trilogy of best selling crime novels by the late Stieg Larsson. The book became a cultural phenomenon in Europe and the US and the story has now made the inevitable leap to the big screen.

The film centers around Mikael Blomkvist, a famed investigative journalist who is six months away from a stretch in prison for after losing a libel case. Mikael is hired by a retired industrialist, who wants him to put his sleuthing abilities to use in finding the killer of his niece who disappeared 40 years ago.

Blomkvist is very similar to Robert Langdon of Dan Brown’s books and the director (Niels Arden Oplev) tries to make filing through records and looking at old photographs look exciting with montages, but it isn’t exactly Rocky.

The sex appeal and edge comes from Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). This heavily pierced, bisexual, motorbike riding computer hacker on parole is a far cry from Audrey Tautou’s character in the Da Vinci Code. It’s her antics that have landed this film an 18s certificate in Ireland.

Lisbeth is originally hired to do a background check on Mikael but ends up aiding him in his investigation. Along the way they find clues pointing to Nazis and a trail of bible influenced murders and spend lots of time researching.

The dullness of the researching is offset by some vicious scenes of violence – particularly against Lisbeth. Her experiences prevent this from having any chance of becoming a popcorn thriller.

The film does have its fair share of action set pieces so you won’t be bored overly long spells. Unfortunately the action finishes before the film and the last fifteen minutes are spent cleaning up loose ends, but this is often the case with movies based on novels.

The stars are very impressive but the supporting cast can be a bit wooden (then again, so can Swedes in general).

There is currently a Hollywood adaptation of the book in pre-production with Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp being touted for the Mikael role, with an expected release in 2012. Go see this version now if you want to be able to be smug and say you preferred the original subtitled Swedish version in two years time.