Very good

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2009)

I watched Män som hatar kvinnor at the cinema earlier this day. Right now I'm probably one of the few people in Sweden that have never read any of Stieg Larsson's books so I entered the cinema without any expectations on how it should be. I had read a few reviews that seemed rather positive. When I left the cinema I was not disappointed.
Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who receives the mission to solve a 40 year old disappearance. A girl, Harriet, disappeared in 1966 and now her uncle, the 82 year old businessman Henrik Vanger, gives Nykvist the mission to solve this mystery. To his help he has Lisbet Salander, an EMO and a computer hacker with a troubled past that we see glimpses of throughout the film. The story is always exciting, new clues are given all the time and we don't get to know the guilty until the end. There are several intensive scene, the most intensive is probably the rape scene towards the start. Now I don't want to give away to much to those who read this review, but trust me when I say that there aren't any slow moments.
Basically the whole acting élite in Sweden has been assembled (it feels as if only Mikael Persbrandt is missing). They all play their roles very well which is quite an accomplishment considering that there is a certain risk for overacting. Noomi Rapace as Lisbet Salander is especially impressing, her role could have become a caricature of the troubled and destructive EMO girl but none of that is a problem in this film. Salander becomes a living human being. Peter Haber deserves to be mentioned. Here he showed that he deserves better than to eternally portray Martin Beck the policeman.
My brother, who had read the book before, told me that they had removed some parts of the plot. Of course that's expected from a film adaptation, and I suspect the film did not loose out on it. On the contrary, it seemed like they removed some unnecessary details that only would have dragged down the pace. He also told me something interesting. He said that when he reached the cellar scene at the end he thought: "Oh no! This book was so good, and now you end it with this unrealistic over-the-top scene!" A few days later, he read the first media reports about the Fritzl case.
This scene is connected to the only thing that somewhat annoys me with this film. All businessmen, except for Henrik, are portrayed as criminals. At the very least they are liars who do not hesitate to send innocent people to jail. The rest are Nazis and/or sadistic killers. I know that not are families are happy ones but this becomes a bit to much of a caricature of the corrupted family of businessmen.
I would like to finish with something else I liked. (MINOR SPOILER) The film often departs from convention. After Salander and Blomkvist have made love I expected them to stay in bed and have some serious discussions about their lives and society in general. Instead, Salander leaves the bed and goes out of the room with a rather surprised Blomkvist shouting after her: "What?! Where are you going now?!" That made the audience laugh.