Summary: Based on the first book of the Millennium Trilogy by Swedish author Steig Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the story of a journalist and private investigator solving a forty year old crime. Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), an old, rich gentlemen hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel Craig), who recently lost a huge libel lawsuit, to figure out who killed his niece, Harriet, over forty years ago. In exchange, Henrik will provide Mikael with all the information he needs to prove the story that got him in trouble. Mikael soon enlists the help of a private investigator, the young girl who did the background check on him for Vanger: Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). They dig deep in to the family history, full of Nazis and other sordid things, in order to figure out what happened to Harriet.
OaTs: This has got to be one of the best adaptations I have seen in a long time. I actually liked it better than the original Swedish film, which I did think was very good. It was much more true to the book in tone - more gray, cold, and eerie. I felt that Rooney Mara was much closer to my image of Lisbeth than Noomi Rapace in the Swedish adaptation. And though I was hoping they would cast Viggo Mortensen as Mikael, Daniel Craig was an excellent choice. He really played the part well.
They did change the ending a bit. Not in a big way. The answer was the same, but revealed in a different way. I actually liked the new ending. It was more concise. The original story climaxes, then takes another twenty or thirty minutes to wrap things up. This one only took about ten minutes.
It's a really gripping story. I'm a huge fan of murder mysteries, or mysteries in general. I have been ever since my love of Nancy Drew books in elementary school. This one is really dark. Really dark. There are some difficult things to watch, including rape, torture, and murder. I wouldn't watch this with anyone unless they knew what they were in for. It's hard to recommend something like this unless I really know someone's taste. I wouldn't want them looking at me like, "Why the hell did you show this to me?" Yeah. I'd like to avoid that conversation.
Funny story: I went to the very first screening of the film with a friend of mine who shares my love of the books. When we got our tickets, it said we were in Theater 3. I found this odd because it's one of the smallest in the theater for a premiere of such an anticipated film. I mean, not like Harry Potter, but the Millennium Trilogy is a phenomenon all over the world. Anyway, we went to sit down and when the commercials came on, they were for Cartoon Network, PBS Kids, and other things of that nature. Then the previews started. They were all for movies rated PG or G. You combine all of this, and my little red flag goes up. I thought, "There's no way studios would pay to advertise children's movies at this movie. The most UN-children's movie of them all."
I knew they were going to play the wrong movie. But I waited. Maybe they just had the wrong reel of previews. Then when the studio title cards started rolling, one said "Happy Madison Productions." Yep. They were showing us the Adam Sandler movie. This was a Tuesday night. The theater was packed. We weren't there to see the Adam Sandler movie that had already been out for a month and received scathing reviews. So I briefly explained this to my friend, Christal, and got up from my chair to tell someone they were playing the wrong movie. A man in the audience tried to tell me it was the wrong movie and I told him that is where I was going.
I told the boy at the concession stand and he alerted the manager. When I got back to the theater, the screen was showing the slide advertisements they show before all movies. They had stopped it. And the theater applauded for me when I got back. I fully fill Christal in on how I knew and she agreed that the previews and commercials were odd once she thought about it. The manager came in and apologized. My theory is that they printed the wrong theater number on the stubs. There's no way they'd have this film in such a small theater for it's first screening.
So that was my viewing experience for this film. It started about a half hour late. Then Christal and I stood outside the theater and discussed it for about ten or fifteen minutes. It was a great evening that made for a great story.
Score: 8/10
They did change the ending a bit. Not in a big way. The answer was the same, but revealed in a different way. I actually liked the new ending. It was more concise. The original story climaxes, then takes another twenty or thirty minutes to wrap things up. This one only took about ten minutes.
It's a really gripping story. I'm a huge fan of murder mysteries, or mysteries in general. I have been ever since my love of Nancy Drew books in elementary school. This one is really dark. Really dark. There are some difficult things to watch, including rape, torture, and murder. I wouldn't watch this with anyone unless they knew what they were in for. It's hard to recommend something like this unless I really know someone's taste. I wouldn't want them looking at me like, "Why the hell did you show this to me?" Yeah. I'd like to avoid that conversation.
Funny story: I went to the very first screening of the film with a friend of mine who shares my love of the books. When we got our tickets, it said we were in Theater 3. I found this odd because it's one of the smallest in the theater for a premiere of such an anticipated film. I mean, not like Harry Potter, but the Millennium Trilogy is a phenomenon all over the world. Anyway, we went to sit down and when the commercials came on, they were for Cartoon Network, PBS Kids, and other things of that nature. Then the previews started. They were all for movies rated PG or G. You combine all of this, and my little red flag goes up. I thought, "There's no way studios would pay to advertise children's movies at this movie. The most UN-children's movie of them all."
I knew they were going to play the wrong movie. But I waited. Maybe they just had the wrong reel of previews. Then when the studio title cards started rolling, one said "Happy Madison Productions." Yep. They were showing us the Adam Sandler movie. This was a Tuesday night. The theater was packed. We weren't there to see the Adam Sandler movie that had already been out for a month and received scathing reviews. So I briefly explained this to my friend, Christal, and got up from my chair to tell someone they were playing the wrong movie. A man in the audience tried to tell me it was the wrong movie and I told him that is where I was going.
I told the boy at the concession stand and he alerted the manager. When I got back to the theater, the screen was showing the slide advertisements they show before all movies. They had stopped it. And the theater applauded for me when I got back. I fully fill Christal in on how I knew and she agreed that the previews and commercials were odd once she thought about it. The manager came in and apologized. My theory is that they printed the wrong theater number on the stubs. There's no way they'd have this film in such a small theater for it's first screening.
So that was my viewing experience for this film. It started about a half hour late. Then Christal and I stood outside the theater and discussed it for about ten or fifteen minutes. It was a great evening that made for a great story.
Score: 8/10
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