GUEST REVIEW: Two Movies of “The Girl…”
© A.J. Malouin 2010
[Your Truly as seen both these movies, and was not knocked down by either one of them. Now, though, from Steve, of Houston, Texas, a member of one of our sister movie-discussion groups, The Oklahoma Movie Alliance, comes a different outlook on the first two movies in this trilogy. With it, too, comes a damning comment on this Summer’s movies in general. —Your Editor]
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is a dynamite thriller that shivers with suspense. So if you ignore “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (from the global best-seller by the late Stieg Larsson) because it’s in Swedish with English subtitles, you probably deserve the remake Hollywood will surely screw up. Better to just go with the twisty flow as pierced, tattooed twenty-something hacker Lisbeth Salander (a dazzling Noomi Rapace in a star-making performance) teams up with middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomqvist (the excellent Michael Nyqvist) to unearth secrets in the family of an industrialist who thinks his niece was murdered 40 years ago. Homicide is just the tip of this Nordic iceberg, which finds Lisbeth and Mikael buried in perversities that would floor the Marquis de Sade. Lisbeth’s revenge on her abusive guardian (Peter Andersson) is graphic enough to freeze your blood. No fair revealing more, except to say that Danish director Niels Arden Oplev fits the puzzle pieces together like a grandmaster of the mystery game. Larsson followed “…Tattoo” with two more posthumously published best sellers, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” (both shot for Swedish TV). But “…Tattoo” is the only one directed by Oplev, whose gift for ratcheting up tension and deepening character makes him a talent to watch. His haunting and hypnotic movie gets under your skin.
It’s the summer of the scum-bucket movies - crap, crap crap - but, check out the second film in a series of books “the smart person’s best-selling trilogy:” “The Girl Who Played With Fire.” It’s the follow-up to the mega-selling Swedish novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy. Noomi Rapace is extraordinary, returning as the hacker with a photographic memory. Although American remakes are due out in the future, “in this horrible summer, it’s worth reading the subtitles.” This one is definitely worth the time. Besides, the American remake will probably be of the same ilk as this summer’s movies. This is a movie for the non-stupid, just like the books. Suspenseful, fun, and not a bit of crap. Can’t wait for the next one which should come to us this year.
[Send your comments to <50films@malouin.us > and we’ll publish them here. —Your Editor]