Disappointing.

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2011)

I must say I'm somewhat surprised at the high ratings being dished out for the 2009 version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... especially from those who have read the book.
My curiosity was sparked having seen the trailer for the 2011 film. I read the book first and tore through it in one sitting - loved it. Did the same with the second book a couple of days later - also awesome. The 2011 movie is not on general release yet, so I decided to watch the original Swedish version in the meantime - and I can't help feeling let down.
I think the reason for this is that so many little bits of the book that really caught my imagination were either just totally left out of the film, or skirted over quickly - The mystery of who was in the window; the mass search of the confined island; the old police officer telling Blomqvist the story of the murder in Hedestadt decades earlier to Harriet's disappearance; then suddenly realising they were connected an the subsequent investigation with all its gory details.
I found the pace and sequencing of this film to be really hard going. One one hand I found it to be very slow, but on the other hand I found it very frustrating that not enough time was really given to explaining what was going on! It was like they tried to include a great deal of content, but completely failed to flesh it out - lurching incomprehensibly but slowly from one plot hole to the next. I'm not sure if I was just zoning out because I was bored, but I found myself wondering how anyone could follow this film if they had not read the book.
I realise that when adapting books to film certain things need to be either marginalised or even left out due to time constraints - but at two and a half hours long the makers could have done better with what they did choose to include.
The acting was OK - nothing amazing. If I hadn't read the book I wouldn't have thought Lisbeth was that much of an interesting character. Some of the photography I thought was excellent. A lot has been said about the 'gritty and brutal' sex/rape scenes, but to be honest I personally did not find them to be as traumatic as many peoples reactions have made them out to be (not suggesting rape isn't traumatic - I've just seen dramas that have contained far more graphic content).
I didn't learn it until after I saw it, but the Swedish 2009 version was originally intended to be the first 2 episodes of a 6-part TV series (a number of other reviews seem upset that events that occur in the first 45mins do not have much to do with the main plot - however it is worth bearing in mind that this film is only the first third of the story).
I anticipate the 2011 version will be by far a more superior film.