Not for the faint of heart

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2020)

This is an outstanding mystery which is even better in the print version, but still a very credible job for a movie.
It has an outstanding and extremely complicated mystery which twists around considerably before all the secrets are revealed. The characters in the movie follow the trail brilliantly and with a few breaks in their favor.
First the warning. This movie contains an absolutely brutal rape. If such a thing can be not exploitative, this is an example of that. It takes place early in the movie and works to establish Lisbeth's character as well as the very dark nature of the movie and the subject matter in it. And that is not the only ugly perverted scene in the movie.
Rooney Mara appears (in this movie role) as one of the ugliest and most sexually unappealing women I have ever seen as a significant character in a movie while not being over the age of 30. That just adds to the character. (She still manages to be naked in several scenes from several angles. Again, somehow it is not exploitative.) Mara is superb as Lisbeth and Lisbeth is something of a superhero. I fell in love with her despite what I said about her appearance. (Of course I have read all of her subsequent adventures which may contribute to my hero worship.) Lisbeth is supremely intelligent, courageous, and unique. But most of all, she is principled. She has a set of rules that not everyone will agree with, but she is absolutely loyal to them.
Blomkvist is a hero and a jerk. He is brilliant and an idiot. Perhaps my biggest complaint with him is how his actions affect Lisbeth in the end, but I suppose that those actions are totally within his established character. In some ways it is the saddest moment of the story.