Solid and well-crafted Whodunnit Suspense Thriller

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2012)

When you make a remake of a movie version of a well-loved book series, you're going to upset some people. Normally I wouldn't be interested in seeing something so far removed from the original, but the reviews were so good that I decided to give it a shot, and I was not disappointed. This is a very solid movie.
It is difficult to take a book with the complicated relationships of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and turn it into a comprehensible movie script, but I think this film succeeds. Is it 100% faithful? No, many details have been left out. Does it need to be? If you feel a movie's first objective is to be a 100% accurate reproduction of the source material then this movie is a failure.
If, however, you feel that a movie should stand and fall on its own merits and should be its own experience then I think this movie succeeds. Daniel Craig's persona lacks a bit of warmth which I think his role needs to engender Lizbeth's trust, but that is my biggest complaint.
Having seen the movie, you will not have read the book. But you will have seen an intelligent, well-crafted re-imagining of the original.