Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Friday, January 13, 2012

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

84th Academy Award for Best Film Editing

Murder mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Rooney Mara: Lisbeth Salander, computer hacker & researcher for Milton Security
Steven Berkoff: Henrik Vanger's lawyer Dirch Frode
Ulf Friberg: wealthy industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström
Daniel Craig: Mikael Blomkvist, co-owner and writer for Millennium magazine
Robin Wright: Blomkvist's co-worker and lover Erika Berger
Christopher Plummer: Henrik Vanger, retired CEO of Vanger Industries
Yorick van Wageningen: Lisbeth’s state-appointed guardian, lawyer Nils Bjurman
Geraldine James: Harriet's cousin Cecila Vanger
Joely Richardson: Harriet’s sister Anita Vanger
Donald Sumpter: retired policeman Gustav Morell
Stellan Skarsgård: Martin Vanger, current CEO of Vanger Industries

REVIEW
Despite being a disgraced journalist (found guilty of libelling an industrialist), Mikael Blomkvist is called upon to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. As with any good murder mystery there are red herrings (the phone call before the opening credits being one?) and lots of clues. But some of them come unexpectedly and with the background noise somewhat difficult to discern.

At the risk of giving away anything please note there are two key moments and without the luxury of being able to go back and reread sections in the novel from which the movie was adapted, you have to pay attention to be sure not to miss what is being said:
• When Blomkvist is talking to Anita on the bench in London
• When Blomkvist and Martin are in the basement of his house

Chockablock with A-List actors the one who outshines them all is Rooney Mara: her performance is worth the price of admission alone.

However at 2 hours and 38 minutes it is too long and the pace would have benefitted from some careful editing of the middle section.

CLASSIFICATION

for brutal violent content including rape and torture, strong sexuality, graphic nudity and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Blomkvist buys a pack of cigarettes along with a coffee. The sale of tobacco products in Sweden is not permitted in cafés.

Lisbeth would have known better than to take photos using flash of the panel behind a glass door as the result would be pictures with big white hotspots lacking any detail and therefore useless.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.