Lurid but Gripping Mystery Thriller

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2011)

This lurid but engrossing mystery thriller about a cold-blooded killer who kills women for fun is riveting stuff from start to finish. Danish director Niels Arden Oplev helmed the first of the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy of thrillers. Clocking in at 153 minutes, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is a gripping account of the search for a girl who mysteriously vanished and one of her relatives who hires a journalist who has just lost a libel suit against a billionaire industrialist to find her. Retired industrialist Henrik Vanger hires publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, Mikael Blomkvist, to solve the 40 year disappearance of Henrik's great-niece. Henrik puts Blomkvist on this cold case based on a profile prepared for him by Lisbeth Salander, a computer whiz with a history of having been abused by her father. In flashbacks, we learn that Lisbeth set her abusive father aflame and she has been on probation since the incident. When she starts hacking into Blomkvist's computer to solve the mystery herself, the journalist contacts her and she joins him. Lisbeth knows a whole lot about abuse. Not only did her father take advantage of her, but she finds herself raped and sodomized by her new probation officer. Lisbeth turns the tables on the evil man when he ties her down to a bed and has his way with her. Little does he know that she has recorded a video of him ravishing her. Later, she gains the upper hand, ties him up, and tattoos on his stomach the words "I am a sadistic pig and a rapist" on his stomach. Eventually, as Blomkvist's investigation takes him dangerously close to the truth, the rest of the Vanger family objects, particularly after Henrik suffers a heart attack. Oplev doesn't waste a single second and you cannot take your eyes off Noomi Rapace who plays Lisbeth. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is an unforgettable film.