Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) by Filipeneto — 24 Oct 2020

I certainly must not have been the only one to discover this film via it's American "twin brother". I did not read the book to judge how the adaptation did it justice, but I have faith that it would have been excellent. Skillfully directed by Neil Arden Oplev, this Swedish film was also my first contact with Scandinavian cinema.

I do not know if it's worthwhile to dwell on the plot, which begins with the investigation of a disappearance in a very rich and powerful family to give rise to a tense and appealing story of mystery surrounding a murderer of women. It is a dense film, with a lot of tension and characters full of personality and easy to like. Of course, the leading role goes entirely to the unfortunate journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his occasional collaborator Lisbeth Salander, a punk hacker with a past of violence and delinquency. The film knows perfectly how to build a tense and mysterious environment, and play with it to keep the audience watching.

The cast has several names in Swedish cinema that are naturally unknown to me because I am far from being a minimal connoisseur of this cinematic universe. Anyway, I really liked Michael Nyqvist's performance, but the extraordinary Noomi Rapace steals all the attention whenever she appears. She is truly talented and has grasped her character with determination, willing to show value. And so it was!

Technically, I would like to highlight the excellent quality of cinematography and the work of filming and editing. The film is long, almost three hours long and in some versions (perhaps the most dedicated to TV) it appears divided in two halves ... but it is totally worth it and if the audience is carried away, they will not even feel the time passing. The effects are minimal, but they fulfill their role, the dialogues are excellent and the lines work very well. The sets and costumes, as well as the Swedish landscapes (with or without snow) increase the visual beauty of the whole ensemble. The soundtrack does its job well.