The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

It's kind of refreshing, when watching watching foreign language films, to not
recognise anyone. For all I know, to a Swedish audience, Michael Nyqvist might
turn up with the tedious regularity of Tom Cruise. However, to me, this is a
fresh cast of unknowns, and that's really nice.

The story is set (unsurprisingly) in Sweden, and follows Mikael Blomkvist, a
recently disgraced journalist, who is retained by an elderly businessman to
investigate the disappearence of his niece, who disappeared about 40 years ago,
who he believes was murdered by one of his odious relatives. Also involved is
Lisbeth Salander, a professional investigator/ computer hacker, who is
initially tasked with checking Blomkvist's background, but who can't resist
getting involved in the case. As they dig into the family, dark deeds are
uncovered.

The film is beautifully shot, somber and dark. Blomkvist is a bit of a cipher,
really; the focus is mostly on Salander, who is a great character; a deeply
disturbed computer geek with unpredictable moods, and a tendancy to take
absolutely no shit whatsoever.

There's a strong current of gritty realism; violence, rape and murder are shown
with uncompromising brutality, which some might find difficult to take. More
positively, on the realism stakes, there's a lot of geekery and hacking going
on, which seems more or less accurate. It's curiously refreshing to see
investigators enhance photographs and get results you could plausibly get out
of photoshop.

Overall, you could probably say that the plot isn't exactly original. When all
is revealed, we're more left with the banality of evil rather than the
ingenuity of it. Ultimately, though, the film is as much about the growing
relationship between Blomkvist and Salander, and that's certainly on of the
film's major strengths. A classy film, which I would recommend to anyone who
usually has the patience for subtitles. I know I'm very much looking forward to
the next two installments, which I believe follow soon.