The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Review

I finally got around to watching this the other day, here's my verdict.

Detective movies rarely strike me as interesting, with a habit for under exploring characters, not filling out all of the plot holes or lacking a sense of realism. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a fine example of a well structured and properly explored story with a real grasp on its characters, ones that are not just your run of the mill detectives with gimmicky tactics, rather real humans who suffer profound psychological effects from delving deep into the mind of a potential killer.

This lengthy film takes its time in developing its two central characters, but with good reason as both are starkly different yet they end up working together and in time become involved with one another. Lisabeth, the shining star of the film, is an icy and striking private investigator. She starts out the film gathering information on Mikael, a social campaigning journalist who is silenced by liable charges; he is given a chance to flex his detective skills in a murder mystery. Lisabeth becomes involved through her spying on him. Mikaels past is pretty cut and dry however Lisabeth, with her icy disposition, has deep psychological problems that stem from a chequered past. During the plot she becomes a victim of abuse, and this has a profound effect on her choices throughout the film.    

The murder mystery at first seems typical, but over time becomes intriguing with results that won't surprise you but will satisfy the pallet of most fans of cinema. It serves more as a back drop to the characters development, just as the mystery served as a back drop to Silence Of the Lambs. But just like Silence Of the Lambs the third act see's the mystery take to the fore and the result is explosive. The characters motives and decisions toward the end are already justified thanks to the groundwork done in the development earlier in the film. There are not many stones left unturned, however flash backs referring to Lisabeths past suggest there's much more to explore here.

The joy of this film is that, although fictionalised, it never really loses too much grip on reality. Sure the premise of the business centric family living on their own private island is pretty far fetched, but it works. The use of technology, which can be hideously over glorified and unrealistic in most films, is very real and you believe that the characters actually know what they're doing rather than just hitting keys magically hacking into things.

The camera work and the soundtrack are first rate, with locations and sound scape giving a real sense of foreboding, and it will be interesting to see if David Finchers remake can top what has already been made. The length is at first questionable in places, however by the end you know that without all the back story the actions and weight of them would not have as big an impact.

Needless to say many people rate this film, and for good reason. I enjoyed watching it, even if the outcome of the mystery is rather predictable. It's not for the faint of heart it's rough and real in places, especially the rape scene. I would gladly watch the next two films as the two main characters have definite room to explore.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Click here for trailer