Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube
Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
Runtime: 152 minutes
UK release date: 12 March 2010:
One of the most surprising literary successes of recent years, Stieg Larsson's weighty tomes aren't exactly obvious cinema fodder. However, Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev and his writers have somehow shaved several hundred pages of secret family history, sexual assault and crusading journalism into a lengthy but surprisingly economic film.
For the three people in the UK who've not read the book, it focuses on a left-wing journalist named Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist). After losing a libel case under vaguely sinister circumstances, Mikael is facing a prison sentence. His crusading turn though has brought him to the attention of a wealthy industrialist, Henrik Vanger (Taube), who wants his help and attention to detail in solving an old family mystery: what happened to his missing niece Harriet?
Henrik believes that Harriet was killed 40 years before and that only a member of the family could have been responsible, but who? With the (interesting) help of (interesting) professional hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), Mikael uncovers some unexpected and disturbing secrets.
Like the novel, once the film gets going, it's a powerful and compelling piece of work. However, like the novel it takes an age to get up to pace. That's not the only parallel: the novel's flaws are writ even larger on the big screen.
For the most part, that's the "psychology 101" background of the intriguing, fiercely intelligent, emotionally withdrawn Salander. One of modern lliterature's most memorable creations, Salander's demeanour and the "sins of the father" explanation felt a little trite in the novel, and that probably goes double here. The revenge scene, while powerful and a fantastic moment of illicit justice, almost feels like it belongs in a different film. Does it really help explain Salander's character? Or is it an oddly salacious moment in an otherwise densely plotted, intelligent story?
Regardless, this is still a sterling piece of work that's brilliantly acted with a grittily believable evolution from gentle drama to full-on, terrifying thriller. The films of the other two novels are, apparently, due later this year. If they're even half as good as this one, it's going to be a very watchable trilogy.
