A pair of amazing performances and a circuitous whodunnit

Rating: 8/10 (14 July 2010)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
An ambitious, complex (at first), offbeat Swedish thriller. There are some really refreshing aspects, not the least is the two main characters, who are not the stereotypes that American (and British) movies seem to be trapped into. That is, these two are really interesting, and driven to succeed, and not just pretty or suave or sexualized. So we focus on the plot for its own sake, and the characters for theirs, avoiding at least some of the threadbare clichés of this kind of step by step detective/conspiracy thriller.
At first the story will seem overly convoluted, but it's nice to remember those certain movies where you have to trust the story to explain itself over time, which it does. Movies that don't dumb down, which this one doesn't. There are, unfortunately, some apparently necessary familiarities with uncovering a crime, like photos that get blown up to reveal new details, and tie-ins with mythic or medieval sources (in this case, an old Bible). And the mistreatment of women. There is also a sense that the perpetrator, since he or she isn't known to the viewer, is a bit abstract, and not, until the end, a threat.
This throws our attention on the quest for information, and on the two leads. The idealistic reporter, played by Michael Myquist, and the counter culture corporate spy, a young woman with piercings and a troubled past, played by Noomi Rapace, are absolutely first rate. They underplay their rather juicy parts. Admiration goes especially for Rapace, who could have hammed this up terribly, or just cheapened her role, but she does a prize-winning twist on all that, and you come to like her more and more as it goes.
The last two minutes? Boy I hated that. It's as if a certain honesty and love of pure truth and justice is thrown out the window for glitz and artifice. But wow, the two and a half hours up to that point are riveting, wonderful stuff. And American viewers should know that this is just the first third of a trilogy, already filmed and released in Sweden, so there's still a wild, intelligent ride ahead.