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If my memory serves correctly (and it probably doesn’t), I first read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo last summer, possibly August? Also, this sentence was a lie, as it implies I’ve read the book more than once, and I have, in pure and total fact, not.
Being a Bookseller, I can pretty much recite this from memory: Stieg Larsson was a Swedish journalist who investigated right-wing fringe groups in, um, Sweden. In his spare time, he wrote, and had completed three books (and was working on a fourth) when he died of natural causes. His completed books were published posthumously in Sweden, and quickly became best sellers across Europe, eventually making their way across the Pond (which is what people for reasons passing comprehension call the Atlantic Ocean) to North America where, in 2008, Stieg Larsson was the 2nd best selling fiction author (after Khaled Hossieni, he of Kite Runner fame)*.
So, due to their popularity, all three books were turned into films. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is currently playing at E-Street Cinema here in Washington, DC and I finally made my way down last night for the 5pm show. And it was pretty good — from what I remember, they stayed very true to the books, and they didn’t flinch away from the book’s theme: in fact, in Sweden, it’s titled Men Who Hate Women** which, in addition to sounding like a middle school movie on how to recognize domestic violence and why you should call 911 if Daddy is doing stuff to Mommy with his belt, is pretty much the whole plot of the book, but more on that in a bit.
Larsson’s books, known as the Millennium Trilogy overseas (although not marketed as such here in the States), follow Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. He is the publisher of a left-wing magazine called Millennium, and she is a girl with a dragon tattoo who, among other things, is both a pretty fucked up individual, and, a “fucking hacker.” Cue crazy plot twists! (And spoilers for both the movie, and the book, so be warned).
There are two intertwined plots to the story: in the first, Blomkvist is fresh off a libel suit loss to a Swedish industrialist named Wennerström, and is scheduled to spend some time in jail. Before his incarceration starts, he’s hired to put his researching skills to use for another Swedish industrialist: this one, a man named Henrik Vanger (CEO of Vanger Group), who wants to find out which Vanger family member killed his niece Harriet forty years previously.
In the second plot, Salander, a researcher for a private security firm with a criminal background of her own, runs into trouble when her guardianship is transferred to a new caretaker. Now, this is sort of bizarre, but from what I understand, in Sweden, people with unsavory pasts can (even as adults) be put into a program where a “guardian” is responsible legally and financially for them. Larsson goes into this in quite a bit of detail in the book, and honestly, some of the exposition was a fucking brick wall. Fortunately, that’s skipped over in the movie (they just assume you know what it is, or can pick up the situation pretty quickly). Sadly, Salander’s new “guardian” is a pretty twisted fucker.
What Blomkvist uncovers regarding Harriet Vanger’s disappearance is a string of religious themed murders. And that’s pretty disturbing, but not quite so much as what’s going on in the other plot, as Salander is the unwitting participant in two pretty graphic rape scenes — in the first, she’s forced to perform oral sex, in the second, she’s beaten and sodomized. By the time you get to the third rape scene (where Salander pretty brutally flips the table on her guardian), you’re not really cringing when she rams a huge dildo up his ass (then kicks it into place).
Eventually, both plots intertwine and, wow, does this movie (and the book, for that matter) suffer from the syndrome of “will you just conclude already?”, as possibly best seen in The Return of the King. That said, yes, the happy ending (if you’ve read the book, you know what I’m talking about) got me to choke and tear up a bit.
The good news is, that if you haven’t yet seen the movie, you’ve still got the opportunity: while E Street had been concerned that today (yes, today) would be their last day to show the film, judging from their online schedule, they’re going to have it through April 20th (and possibly beyond). Wikipedia’s entry on the film series also includes this awesome nugget of information: The film was released in the United States on March 19th, 2010 by Music Box Films, which will also release the second and third films in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, later in 2010.
Point of order: yes, the movie is almost entirely subtitled (there’s a very brief English dialogue sequence at the end). I’m always worried about attending subtitled films, but once it gets going, you really hardly notice them. (Still, c’mon: yellow subtitles are where it’s at. White? Especially when so many characters wear WHITE shirts? Boo!)
*Okay, I can’t actually recall where I read this last bit about 2008, Publisher’s Weekly, maybe?
**Point of order: in Sweden, it’s actually titled Män som hatar kvinnor, because, duh, Swedes speak Swedish, not English. However, Män som hatar kvinnor translates to “Men Who Hate Women.” (I know this, because I wikipediaed it).
***Okay, I read it back in July. I know, because I blogged it.
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is being re-made in english for US audiences with minor changes: The charcaters are all in their early 20's, look like Smallville extras and it's being directed by Paul Verhoeven.
You should love it's timely plot twist of Harriet Vanger’s death resulting from her health insurance cancellation.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
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I read Dragons & Dwarves: Tales of the Cleveland portal just recently myself. being a clevelander helps understand some of the humor but...
oh. and i finally left the evil place known as CVN-69.
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