Swedes return intelligence to the movies (well, OK, one movie)

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2010)

With Hollywood as well as moviegoers apparently stuck on stupid like never before in 80 years -- the current "Inception" is Exhibit #1 and "Shutter Island" is #2 -- along comes this Swedish made drama for persons like us who prefer intelligence when we see a movie. "Tattoo" runs 2 1/2 hours but never loses your attention.
Say "Tattoo" is about an investigation is not giving too much away. But what a brilliant and engrossing exercise in movie-making, turning an overworked genre into wonderful originality. Compare this to the hollowness of "inception" wherein nothing is happening on screen but computer generated nonsense (cars explode, buildings collapse) but cleverly backed up by intense music, heavy on the drums.
"Tattoo" includes many references to the Bible, all from Leviticus. This is the dreaded (to liberals) section that forbids homosexual acts, but also (not mentioned in the movie) tattoos. Not to give things away but the dragon tattoo is neither mentioned or explained.
I like the tattoo girl a lot. (Except for the tattoo) I like her values, and how she deals with problems. Like Chloie on "24" she gets things done, but she gives no quarter to the forces of evil.
Final comment: Of the 10,000 movies I've seen, #1 is also from Sweden, "Wild Strawberries" by Ingmar Bergman.