“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (2009)

Swedish import “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is a rare thing, what used to be called a “rollicking good thriller”.  As a genre the thriller has fallen into a state of disrepair.  Arugably there hasn’t been a great thriller since the death of Alfred Hitchcock.  When Hollywood attempts one these days it usually ends up like “The Bourne Identity”, its sequels and clones: action films by proxy.  True thrillers are not about spectacle, they are about tension.  They need a convoluted plotline, a central mystery that is compelling enough to command and hold your attention, and a measured pace as that mystery is solved.  For the most part “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” delivers.

Two stories are told in parallel.  The main plot involves the efforts of a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, to solved a forty year old case involving the disappearance of one of his former babysitters.  Recruited by uber rich octogenarian Henrik Vanger to investigate what happened to his neice Harriet one weekend back in 1966, Blomkvist in turn hand picks an assistant, IT genius Lisbeth Salander.  Salander’s life story, one that ultimately involves, I suspect, the origins of titular markings on her back, makes up the balance of the plot, climactically motivating a flash back of “Once Upon in the West” proportions.

Both the Vanger and the Salander stories involve the type of sexual and physical abuse that seems to have become commonplace in contemporary cinema since the likes of “Saw” and “Hostel” raised the bar on what was acceptable entertainment.  Director Niels Arden Oplev walks a fine line between the sensational and the distasteful when presenting Lisbeth’s encounters with her probation officer, a man who holds the purse strings to her finances in one hand and his penis in the other. 

If there is anything going on thematically in these scenes it has to do with the nature and appropriateness of revenge, and the way in which abuse begets character.  Salander’s history informs her propensity for violence and deep suspicion of love and committment - though this does not rule out some casual physical intimacy with Blomkvist and a modicum of affection - while the evil forces that are eventually revealed to be involved in Harriet’s disappearance are likewise a result of immoral lessons taught at a young age.

For the most part “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is happily free of the need to make any big statements or even sustain credibility.  So well constructed is the film that it’s occasional ludricrous moments can be swallowed whole.  One did give me cause to laugh, however, even if you can hardly blame the filmmakers for the fact that their movie was overtaken by real life events: a scene in which Lisabeth chases a baddie out of the house, into a large vehicle and down the road whilst branishing a golf club had all the hallmarks of a Mr & Mrs Tiger Woods domestic incident!  Given that Elin Nordegren and Lisabeth Salander are of the same nationality I can only assume that golf is a contact sport in Sweden.

If the open ending leaves most questions about Lisabeth unanswered there is good reason.  Two further films - edited together, like “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, from a television adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s post humous Millenium trilogy - await us.  They have a lot to live up to.