The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Bea says: This Swedish thriller, adapted from a novel by Stieg Larsson, was previewed at the NFT last night, and Cecil and I were fortunate enough to get a pair of tickets, so went along. The plot follows a fairly troubled period in the life of Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist, who has just been sentenced to a jail term following a set up. Awaiting this, he is hired by the elderly patriarch of a wealthy, and well-known, family to investigate the disappearance of his niece some 40 years previously. In one of many twists, the family also investigate Blomkvist to ensure he is bona fide - and the film's protagonist Lisbeth Salander is introduced.

Lisbeth is young, gothic, vulnerable but tough, with a disturbed past, and also very, very bright. Spying remotely on Blomkvist's laptop she quickly becomes intrigued by his investigation and sends him suggestions and solutions - and before too long she has joined him where he has holed up in a traditional Swedish cottage on the family's property.

The original Swedish title of this film is "Men Who Hate Women" and that in fact is a much more accurate description of much of the content of the film than the watered-down English title - the film tracks in-depth three rapists, two of whom are also serial killers. Lisbeth is the victim is one of these men, and through her character the film is also about women's hate towards men who are violent towards them, and about revenge, which Lisbeth takes, graphically, on three occasions.

Lisbeth is a strong and unusual female character in these post-feminist times and I certainly found her refreshing in comparison to the usual kind of female characters I see portrayed in film these days; in fact all of the female actresses in this film are refreshing for their lack of cosmetic enhancement, and comfortable with themselves and their age.

As Blomkvist and Lisbeth solve the disappearance of Harriet the film starts to take a more familiar turn - it reminded me of Se7en, and of The Da Vinci Code a bit, but it is fast paced and sufficiently concerned with relationships to keep me very interested. What I took from the film were complex thoughts about men and women, hate and revenge - I have not read any Larsson, but this film made me want to - a good thing.
***1/2

Cecil says: You don't see many Swedish films these days, do you? I mean, apart from the odd Bergman classic (and they're usually so depressing), the only Swedish film I can remember seeing in the last 20 odd years is My Life as a Dog. So, I guess the Swedes keep all their films for themselves, because surely people are making films up there?

Like Bea, I was struck by the film's title in Swedish; but also by the report that people were queuing round the block to see this film in Stockholm when it came out. Can you imagine Parisian film-goers waiting in line to see a film called "Men who hate women" (not when they have Truffaut's "The man who loved women" in their film heritage) - so I can guess the distributors went with the English title translated for French release...

This film certainly shows Swedish men in a scary light (apart from our hero Blomqvist, of course) - rapists, sadists, murderers and psychopaths, quite apart from the Nazi sympathisers. Jesus, it makes you wonder what goes on behind the usually calm exterior of most Swedes I know.

But, back to the film. It opens with a lovely scene: close up of old man slowly and carefully opening a package that has come in the post. So beautifully filmed, you know the rest of the film is going to be a gem.

And, as long as you can avoid getting mixed up with these awful Swedish men, the country does look stunningly beautiful: gorgeous lakes and islands, wonderful woods, all that ice and snow. Another must for future holidays list.

And as Bea says, the plot races along to keep you on the edge of your seat. There were moments two thirds through when I did begin to think it was getting a little like Scooby-Doo, or even like that American TV series Smallville, which has a young Superman fixing crimes along with his geeky female sidekick, who also, by the way, is a whizz-kid on computers...

There were also brief moments of incredulity. Can you really have access to the internet on your laptop in prison in Sweden? (Can you in the UK??). And as for those Australian sheep shearers towards the end (don't ask...), we KNEW they weren't genuine (and the credits at the end showed that this was filmed in Malaga with mostly Spanish farmhands - well it WAS a European co-production, and it would have cost the earth to fly over to Australia...).

Like Bea, I too have never read any Stieg Larsson before. I want to now. But also, reading that he died of a heart attack at the age of 50 before any of his books had even been published gave me pause for thought. Gulp: I'm 50 and I haven't even written my first book yet...but watch this space...

***