Click photo to enlarge
Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.
With un-Hollywood like restraint, this is a film that
gradually reveals a crime much more shocking than could be
anticipated.
> The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Cast: Michel Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Peter Haber,
Sven-Bertil Taube, Peter Andersson, Ingvar Hirdwall, Marika
Lagercrantz
Rating: (R16)
3 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed by Mark Orton
If Scandinavian cinema was your only point of reference, you
might assume that the sun never shines north of Denmark.
So it is with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(TGWTDT).
Rich shades of black and blue shroud almost every scene, as a
bunch of super-staid Swedes tackle an adaptation of Stieg
Larsson's first instalment of the critically acclaimed
Millennium trilogy.
Investigative reporter Mikael Blomqvist (Michel Nyqvist) has
been found guilty of libel and given a short prison sentence.
His redemption comes via an offer to re-examine the
40-year-old disappearance of Harriet Vanger from an island
owned by her wealthy and slightly unhinged family.
Spooked by the unsavoury history of his hosts, Blomqvist
forms an unlikely alliance with Lisbeth Salander (Noomi
Rapace), an antisocial Goth-inspired geek with issues of her
own.
With un-Hollywood like restraint, TGWTDT gradually
reveals significant clues that piece together a crime much
more shocking than anticipated.
We get no blatant insights that the characters themselves
don't possess.
This is critical, as the tension is enough to keep viewers
tuned in as the disturbing drama unfolds.
Nyqvist and Rapace do a fine job with stern emotional
coldnesss while director Niels Arden Oplev reveals layers of
Hitchcock-like intrigue.
But with more endings than a Peter Jackson film, even the
cleverly executed play on "all is not what it seems" is let
down by adhering a little too rigorously to Larsson's book.
Best thing: Self-trained actress Noomi Rapace's attention
to method detail and style makes for perfect
characterisation.
Worst thing: The length, at 2hrs. Oplev could have
trimmed half an hour and lost no impact.
See it with: Any fan of crime-detective dramas.
