"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2011) non-spoiler review

Hello there!

Recently I was assigned to watch "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" for my screenwriting class. I immediately set out, in my limited time until the due date, to read the book first. I managed to read the six hundred something paged novel in just a few days and within a few hours before I had to watch the film and be quizzed on it. Not the brightest plan, I admit, but it was worth it!

As this is a non-spoiler review, there's not much I can tell you about the story's contents here. Come back next Friday for a spoiler filled review of both the book and film.

Synopsis

If you don't know, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the first book in the popular psychological thriller book series Millennium by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It follows recently discredited journalist Mikael Blomkvist and prodigy investigator Lisbeth Salander as they try and solve a 40 year old cold case about a missing girl from a rich and shady Swedish family. In this first book, retired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation Henrik Vanger has been haunted by the disappearance of his beloved great niece Harriot and he hires Blomkvist to try and decipher this eerie mystery - of how Harriot was seen one minute and literally vanished the next... without any trace.

Warnings

There's a reason people say this is a rough movie. It's a great mystery novel but it is honestly a disturbing tale. Trigger warnings include: infidelity, age-gap relationships, mentioned incest, explicit language, sex/nudity, rape/sexual assault, murder/violence, torture, animal cruelty, etc. If you can't get past these, that's fine. You don't have to. Go watch Knives Out or Murder on the Orient Express, other great mystery movies sans the scarring. But, if you can see past these to check it out and enjoy the mystery, let us know what you thought. What you loved, what you hated, and how'd you rate the book/film? What surprised you the most about it? We'd love to know.

Thoughts

My thoughts about the book and movie are jumbled and scattered as I just finished the book and immediately watched the movie, for the first time mind you, so forgive my stream of consciousness style today. First impressions? Dark, disturbing, and captivating. The score is subtly sublime - be it shrill or deep, frantic or melancholic, the eerie music shifted on a dime to ratchet up the nerves and suit the film's faceted experience.

For the movie especially, there's a few pluses due to its great cast. It was great casting for the book's characters as well as amazing actors to bring them to life. To name a few I know and love: Daniel Craig - Mr. Bond himself, Rooney Mara (her acting here was the standout for me), Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård - Marvel's lovable scientist Erik Selvic, and the great Christopher Plummer were all priceless additions to the quality of the film. (Side note: Both Craig and Plummer star in the aforementioned murder mystery flick Knives Out.)

I really enjoyed both the book and the movie. It was a very well-written, well paced, gripping mystery thriller with two surprisingly likable main characters and a wealth of characters with questionable motives and morals. I honestly could not have seen half the revelations and happenings coming. I caught myself saying "what just happened" or "oh that's what that was" all the time - not for lack of attention or understanding but for the sheer amount of seemingly dead-end signs to piece together and twisted secrets to uncover.

In the end, I gave the book four stars and might rate the movie the same. It's not my favorite thing of all time, nor it is the kind of thing I usually like to read/watch, but it was amazingly well done and I really enjoyed the story. Not to mention the movie was a respectful adaptation of the book; only had two major changes with a few other minor deviations.

So at the end of the day heed the warnings, but please consider checking out this remarkable book/film. Let us know if you do, and leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below. Hejdå!