The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Running Time: 152 minutes.
Media: DVD.

The book on which this movie is based, has but of course, become the next thing since the Harry Potter series and the Twilight Saga. Stieg Larsson brings his characters to life in the Millenium series, the first, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is a best-seller. It seems every second person is reading this book... The Movie Madman has only just finished it last week, and is soon to follow it up with reading the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

But the real question is, how well does The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo translate onto the silver screen? I missed out on seeing this in the cinema and so I've had to resort to watching it on DVD. So I'll give you the best review I can.

One thing you'll come to notice is that this movie is in Swedish, and with English subtitles, so one thing I've come to learn is that you are continuously looking at the subtitles, as if watching a foreign movie on SBS. This can get annoying if, unlike myself, you are not used to having to read a movie. The title itself "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" isn't even the actual translation for the Swedish title "Män Som Hatar Kvinnor" which translates to "Men Who Hate Women"; which kinda gives you a bit of an idea of how dark this story can actually become, and considering the movie features much more graphic and somewhat violent scenarios, the book seems a little lean in comparison. Having read the book recently, I've always been curious to see how well the book translates into film. Accordingly, I tend to have somewhat high expectations of such book-to-movie transitions. I have to confess, even some fifty minutes in, the movie does adhere considerably to the storyline, with a few minor alterations to help speed the story along, but nothing that would detract from the original altogether.

Noomi Rapace stars as Lisbeth Salander, the enigmatic gothic computer security consultant; who is actually quite gorgeous, despite the black make-up and piercings. She'll actually be starring in the new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out in December alongside of Robert Downey, Jr. Mikael Blomkvist, played by Michael Nyqvist, who stars in the newest film in the Mission Impossible film franchise, Ghost Protocol, is also pretty much spot-on in his portrayal of the troubled journalist. If anything, he fits my expected interpretation of his description from the book.

This movie does come with a caveat from me, as it does contain scenes of violence and sex-related themes which may offend or upset some people. To be honest, I would highly recommend reading the book first before even considering watching the movie as I am doing now; kinda prepares you for what you end up seeing. Mind you, now having seen the movie, I now have a strange desire to eat meatballs and herring, and buy stuff from IKEA.

I personally would love to see how the American remake of this film, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, as Mikael and Lisbeth respectively, plays out in comparison. I'll be giving this movie 4½ stars for an excellent interpretation from print to screen.