Keep track of names to know who did what to who and when

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2011)

...or you'll get lost as to what is being investigated in such great detail in a 40 year old missing?/murdered? person who done it case.
Didn't read the books but it did remind me of a really good Agatha Christie novel I used to read back in the late '70's in high school except without the sadistic torture and provocative sex scenes.
You'll appreciate the dark, cold and cozy ambiance of the entire movie that gets you to want to curl up in a warm bed with a hot toddy to read the very great mystery novel you're now watching as the movie unfolds to get you to focus on every character's quirky behaviors as a means of finding out who done it.
Pay attention to the sidetrack hacking shenanigans presented as a clever way of getting back at someone through their bank account. Pay attention! It's really cool how it's done!
This movie also has that sophisticated European foreign film feel that's so unlike the pacing of American movies. I kept asking is this what it's like in Sweden? Geez! Their welfare system really sucks as well. You'll see what I mean.
This movie DOES take you to an alternate unsettling world of daily dysfunctional and abusive family life in another country with a history dealing with its own serial killer who's never been found for 40 years.
I'ld have to say without a doubt Rooney Mara's performance is on line with Batman's Heath Ledger's "Joker" in the way they completely and totally become another person never seen before but is made to look quite real and unsettling. They both out do Brando and Dean in this respect. It's fascinating to watch an actor go that deep into a character with such realism. Don't know how they do it.
Just watching that is worth the price of a movie ticket on top of the surprise ending to the who done it mystery.