Surprised and breathless.

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2011)

I'm from Brazil and I never heard anything about this story, nor the Millennium trilogy or anything about it till one day I was caught reading some news about David Fincher's new movie which is entirely based on the original 2009's Swedish movie based on Stieg Larsson's novel 'Men Who Hate Women' (Män som hatar kvinnor, 2005). From that moment on I looked for more information about it, read everything I could find and the more I was informed about, the more I was curious about.
Finally I could have the possibility to get the entire original movie trilogy to watch before watching any American version that are set to be release, or even trailers. Today I've watched the first one and I'm breathless. It's one of the best investigation/crime movies I've seen. Its impressive, well constructed, edged plot is really intense. The characters are also edged, full of interesting psychological layers, completely out of what is usually created. The story is extremely well developed and all the parallel stories withing the main plot are tied amazingly, being easy to follow even with its complexity level. I mean, there are no unnecessary twists or red herrings that American movies usually have just to play with the audience, the main plot lead us to the subplots with no efforts because the effective screenplay and direction naturally hold our attention in a full-circle story, guiding us from a defined beginning thru a fully coherent and satisfying ending.
The acting level is another top thing. Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander are responsible for entire movie effectiveness, both are completely different from each other, but at the same time their chemistry is amazing and their relationship may be complex but understandable. At first impression Noomi Rapace's character may seems awkward and move with all of our inner prejudices, but then you're intensely touched by her past and story and her difficulties to adapt herself into a harsh world and that's when you finally realize once again that prejudice isn't the best judging tool for anything.
Every single scene in the movie has its reason to happen and that is impressive and refreshing for those ones that are tired and so used to American movies filled with empty scenes. It's a movie with some disturbing images, but as I said before, it's effective and necessary for the development of the characters and also for the deepness of the story.
Now I can understand David Fincher's reasons to make an American version of the trilogy, not because since Seven (1995) there wasn't so many interesting thriller movies, but because 'Män som hatar kvinnor' not only can be easily the best one since Seven but maybe better than Fincher's classic. But really, I can't understand the reasons for an American version when the original Swedish one is superb, with an extremely top notch production. So I hope Fincher doesn't overdo the elements that the original retained in the exact doses, but unfortunately we can expect an extremely cleaner version.
After watching the first part of the Millennium trilogy, I'm much more excited to watch the other two parts.