The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010)

European audiences have been flocking to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and with good reason–not only is it adapted from an international best-seller by the late Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson, but it’s also a smart, suspenseful, and highly satisfying mystery of a caliber seldom seen these days. With its release in America, discerning filmgoers will be rewarded for seeking this one out.

The story begins with an investigative journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nykvist), being convicted of libeling a rich, corrupt industrialist in a much-publicized trial. He has a six-month window for appealing his three-month jail sentence before serving it, but even though Mikael knows he was set up, he’s resigned to his fate and plans no appeal. Yet he can’t help but respond when aging industrialist Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) contacts him with a curious offer: spend the next six months on an island, out of the limelight, investigating the disappearance of Vanger’s niece Harriet, who vanished in 1966. Uncle Henrik has anguished over this mystery for 40 years, believing she was murdered. There was no way on or off the island at the time of her disappearance, so any and all members of the wealthy Vanger clan–a number of whom still reside on the island–are suspects. Further piquing Mikael’s interest is the fact that the missing Harriet was once his childhood babysitter.

As Mikael begins his investigation, the film periodically shifts to a second storyline, that of a 24-year-old punk girl named Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). Forever clad in black leather and Doc Martens, with multiple piercings and the titular tattoo etched in detail across her back, Lisbeth has had a mysterious and troubled past, and is under the guardianship of a harsh, conniving lawyer (Peter Andersson). She’s a scrappy fighter, and if she has to take someone’s bullshit, she won’t take it well at all. She’s also a gifted computer hacker working for a security company, and when Vanger’s lawyer has her hack and track Mikael, she comes to believe in his innocence. What’s more, Lisbeth is very intrigued by the current investigation on Mikael’s hacked laptop…

One may safely presume that Mikael’s and Lisbeth’s paths will cross and perhaps merge, but any further details would reveal too much about this fascinating thriller. I have not read the original novel, but reportedly this film is a faithful adaptation, and it certainly feels that way. It’s a long movie–just over two-and-a-half hours–but it’s never slow or boring. On the contrary, it doesn’t feel rushed like thrillers often are, and it gives time for all of the multiple mysteries within this story to be pondered and solved. (Well, there’s one mystery left tantalizingly incomplete, and without giving anything away, all I can say is that it involves what’s in the center of the final shot.) The audience has time to learn about these characters, piece the puzzle together as they do, and wade through a couple of red herrings, all trademarks of the classic mystery. We also have the time to enjoy the work of a talented cast across the board, anchored by Noomi Rapace’s solid portrayal of Lisbeth. I want to see more of her, and I don’t just mean her back tattoo.

Be advised: in addition to the length, there are several moments of brutal violence in this film, a couple of which are very hard to watch. Even the off-screen violence described and flashed in still photos is graphic and disturbing. The more shocking elements of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo evoke a mixture of an Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen whodunit and The Silence Of The Lambs. The latter film is my personal gold standard for thrillers, and though this motion picture doesn’t quite reach the same level of excellence, it approaches that quality much more than the average American-made suspense film. I’m also excited to invstigate the mysteries in the two upcoming sequels. Meanwhile, I’ll shout out to fellow fans of the soon-departed Lost–and of suspense and international cinema–that this movie brings another mystery-filled island that’s well worth exploring.

(Check out Amazon for more foreign films. We get a small commission when you make a purchase, and these proceeds help us to keep bringing you quality movie reviews.)