The Girl With The Draon Tattoo

I recently caught up with this excellent Swedish thriller. It follows the tale of a recently disgraced journalist (Michael Nyqvist as Mikeal) as he investigates a forty year old disappearance for a reclusive rich business man and the trials of a twenty something hacker with an abusive past (and present) who ends up helping him.

The presence of the missing Harriet Vanger hangs over the film like a ghost for most of the runtime (indeed helped by the isolated setting) as Mikeal investigates the dealings of the Vanger family and their dark secrets meanwhile playing against the traditional thriller fair of the investigation we follow Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace) as she endures and fights back against some terrible abuse at the hands of her probation officer.

Indeed this section of the film is very dark stuff indeed and is hard to watch at times but does go a long way to explaining Lisbeth's actions at the film's end. To really say more here would go a way to spoiling the mystery at the heart of the film but be warned this is some distressing stuff in here.

The mystery and investigation itself are compulsive and things take a turn once a series of murders is discovered connected to the family and echoes of Se7en enter the frame as each crime is played out in a specific way.

Sadly once the villain is revealed things stutter a bit as the last third of the film both dispatches them and ties together some lose ends in a slightly stilted way. But the motivations of a couple of the characters turn out to be distressingly similar and you will be made of stone if at least one part of the final third doesn't get to you.

Michael Nyqvist as Mikeal is solid in the role and does give you the sense of a man who once intrigued won't let thins lie but it's Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth who puts in the star performance. Given an incredibly complex character to work with she succeeds in making Lisbeth a rounded if damaged individual, someone who is looking for something in her life she isn't sure exists, love. Sounds cheesy I know but it is played and written excellently.

It's a great film of the type of investigative thriller you seem to get so rarely these days and am also indeed now very much looking forward to the US remake since remembering it's David Fincher calling the shots. The material is certainly right up his street and the last time he made something similar we got the masterwork that is Zodiac.