I haven't read the book, but from what i've read about it, the movie seems to have the same qualities, i.e. not the greatest writing, but a solid enough mystery story that transcends some of the cliched aspects of the plot and its evil characters by the uniqueness of the good guys and their relationship—a troubled young female hacker and a middle-aged crusading magazine reporter.
The story is scheduled for an "American" version, but the Swedish original I saw the other night to get out of the heat and the power outages again, will be hard to beat. The lead actors are terrific, even in the most operatic moments of melodrama or emotional and plot manipulation.
I'm always grateful when watching a European movie because the leads are almost always willing to expose themselves physically as mortals with the usual human flaws, especially physically, that no Hollywood movie seems capable of matching (except for the overgrown-boy comedy male leads where the women are still usually pretty perfect, in fact usually too perfect to believe they're with the lead, but that's usually the point as they're won over by his humor and sincerity etc.).
Anyway I'm distracted as I write this that the airport connection seems to have broken in one of my nieces' house down the Jersey shore on Long Beach Island. I've been here with my twelve-year-old for two days, an invitation that got us out of my neighborhood's continued power outages and into a rough but warmly inviting ocean and the love of family.
So I'll cut this short and hopefully catch up over the weekend. But my final verdict on THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is that though some of the violence is gratuitous—even if for a good cause, and unfortunately realistic and believable in this world—it's a pretty compelling story about anti-fascism metaphorically and literally, but more specifically anti-evil. A little too broadly done, but always moving the narrative along, keeping it full of suspense and unexpected shifts in tone and rhythm. I loved it.
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