The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

From the pen of Movie Man Mike

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (A-). Whew! Let me say this story wore me out. I was exhausted and needed a drink after watching it. The plot was so riveting, I pretty much forgot that the film is subtitled. It begins a little slow, and it's a little confusing at one point when they lay out all the members of the Vanger family, but if you can stick with it, it is well worth it. Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander, who is the girl with the dragon tattoo, and she is a fantastic character. I would never want to meet her in a dark alley. Salander is a computer hacker and is an unlikely partner to reporter Mikael Blomqvist, who is hired by Henrik Vanger to solve the mystery of his niece's death after 45 years afterwards. But the partnership produces some interesting leads, and the plot quickly thickens. Let me warn readers in advance that there are a couple of scenes with graphic sexual violence. I was not aware that the scenes were in the movie beforehand, and it caught me off guard. I totally understand the director's decision to put these scenes in the movie, because you cannot totally understand the dimensions of Lisbeth's character (assuming that is possible at all) without those scenes. Even if you don't catch this movie at the theaters, by all means rent it on DVD,