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.

Drive

Running Time: 100 minutes.
Media: Cinematic Release.

Drive is a really unusual movie... the third movie in my seven movie marathon on 29/10/2011.

And when I say "unusual", I mean "warped"... Drive is a crime drama which seems to start off in a manner similar to how we'd picture one of the films from Jason Stratham's The Transporter series. Ryan Gosling stars as the unnamed film stunt-car driver who moonlights as getaway driver, who despite his being much of a conversationalist seems to make up for this with his ability to put pedal to the metal.

In Drive, the Driver finds himself involved with jailbird husbands and their suffering families, Jewish mobsters and conspiracies; all which sends the film spiraling to an inevitable emptier conclusion than expected, which although ties up loose ends, does so sloppily and leaves you wondering how you wound up where you were at the end of the film. Given though, that this is an art-house kind of film, and not necessarily a Hollywood blockbuster, I have to shift my perspective accordingly.

There's a great sense of apathy in this film and it seems there's very little emotion displayed on the characters save for anger... and yet the Driver seems to be the only person who provides any real emotion... well, towards the second half of the film... aside from that, the Driver very rarely says anything more than five words at any one time, if that. This considerably screwed with my head as you would think the main character of a film would be the one who tends to have a considerable speaking part... The violence in this film increased almost exponentially as time went on and this also was a considerable cause for concern, as far as the audience's reaction was concerned.

This movie exhibits a lot of 80's themes, scenery, and references... the mobile phones, cars and clothing are very antiquated, and even the soundtrack is very 80's-influenced; which adds to the feel of the movie. But still, this movie left me reasonably uncomfortable in the end; whether this was due to the violence, or how it left me at the end, I'm not sure... At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Drive was praised and even received a standing ovation... To be perfectly honest, I simultaneously can and cannot imagine why either of these would be the case. I admit, the 80's themes and the quiet brroding nature of Gosling's role are novel, but a standing ovation and so forth are, in my personal opinion, somewhat questionable. I've decided to give this movie four stars.