Gruesome Grueling Intrigue, Swedish Style

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2010)

Perhaps it is the current need to see that evil eventually consumes itself that make films like THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (AKA "Män som hatar kvinnor") so successful. Or it may be the posthumous fame given Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (from which this film is 'Millennium: Part 1 - Men Who Hate Women') that has prepared an audience of believers. Whatever the reason this first installment (the other two installments have already been filmed and are ready for release) is being hailed as an epic masterpiece, a film that will go down in cinematic history as a classic. And for that reason you may want to see this current long exploration of the evil of man. But is it a masterpiece.....?
Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg adapted this book for the screen and the script is interpreted by director Niels Arden Oplev who has cast the many characters of the story with some excellent Swedish actors. By the end of this multi-twisted tale we are left satisfied with the balance of good over evil - or are we? After all we're only part way there and, as in the BOURNE SERIES in this country, subsequent parts to the story become only more bizarre - and exciting. At any rate, the story in brief deals with an investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) whose apparent loss of a case of libel against a wealthy corrupt corporate group results in his being chosen by an elderly but mentally vigorous gentleman Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) to investigate a long buried case of the apparent murder of his niece -a deed Vanger is convinced is associated with his disgustingly morally corrupt family. Blomkvist is fascinated and begins his tedious examination of film and facts that seem to add clues as to the mystery surrounding Harriet Vanger's disappearance. Enter a punk rock appearing, pierced and tattooed young girl Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Repace) who ends up assisting Blomkvist in solving the conundrum. After some rather confusing bits of replay of Lisbeth's past and the revelation of her current situation with a guardian assigned to control her after her recent discharge from an institution, we are allowed to watch the discovery of 40 years of serial killings of young girls: the fact that they are all Jewish and that Vanger's family contains a number of ex-Nazis boils the pot. Much gore, visual exposure to violence and the results of violence flood the screen as the eventual discovery of the true history of Harriet Vanger is uncovered.
The film is two and a half hours long but seems much shorter because of the rapid fire sequencing by the director. Much praise has been heaped on Noomi Repace as Lisbeth and while she performs well, and looks bizarre, one wonders why all the hoopla. This is a good film of its kind, very well transforming a book into cinematic excess, and for those who crave gore and acts of depravity it will probably please. For film goers who prefer thinking to raw action this may not be the choice of a film du jour. In Swedish with subtitles and with English dubbing.
Grady Harp