One of my latest obsessions has been the books by the late Stieg Larsson which begin with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which when published in Sweden where Larsson was from was called “Men Who Hate Women.”  The trilogy of books were released after Larsson tragically died of a heart attack and have become huge best-sellers all over the world.  The film, based on the first book, was the highest grossing movie ever in Sweden.  It opens here in the US today in a bunch of cities before it rolls out nationwide.

Don’t mistake this film for a typical foreign film even though it is in Swedish.  It was one of the most exciting films I have seen in a long time.  The fact that it wasn’t in English never bothered me.  Larsson creates a female character that you never see in the movies.  Lisabeth Salander played by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace is a smart, damaged young woman who gets caught up in a 40 year old mystery along with left wing investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist).  She is a small slip of a thing festooned with tattoos who has raised and protected herself and has erected a very large wall around her that no one can break through.  When she is challenged and assaulted watch out cause you are in serious trouble.  She kicks butt of the highest order and as she does it you can’t but help have a smile of your face knowing and feeling that she is some sort of avenging angel for all women who have been abused.

There has been a lot of debate about whether the film and the books are feminist.  Some argue against it because there is so much graphic violence against women in of them.  There is.  It’s not easy to watch.  The violence against women is one of the most important pieces of the story.  But to me, while the violence is graphic, I never felt that either in the book or the film that it was gratuitous.  And that’s what I usually hate most about violence against women especially in movies.  People put violence against women in just to titillate. The violence in this film drives the story and legend has it that one of the reasons Larsson wrote the book was  to expose this pervasive issue.

The film is long but you will not notice it because it is never for one second boring.  I can’t wait to see it again and I hope when they remake it in English (Scott Rudin has bought the rights) for American audiences, that they keep the essence of Lisabeth intact and don’t tone her down to make her more palatable.  She is so great because she is unpalatable.  She is so great because she is different than any woman we have seen on screen before.  She is a truly heroic character.  It’s just awesome that this time the hero is a woman.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

• Filed Under:  
• Entertainment, Film

• Tags:
• Movies
• Nomi Rapace
• Scott Rudin
• Stieg Larsson
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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