The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

• 1st Sep 2010

If you haven’t even remotely heard of this European thriller then you must have been living under a rock and you have no excuse if you live in London as the tube has been littered with posters of the books and the film for some time.

Regardless, this film is about two protagonists – a disgraced reporter (Michael Nyqvist), and a computer hacker (Noomi Rapace) (also the titular character) who come together down the line to work on a case handed to the reporter. The less said about plot details the better as this long but rich story does the work for you. Needless to say it involves a rich family and a murder.

What impresses is the time the film takes to get there. Our heroes don’t meet for a good while, as this gives us the opportunity to get to know his and her situations. He is facing 3 months in jail and expulsion from the publication he works for, her situation is even worse. A juvenile offender with a foul and violent temper she finds herself on the wrong side of the law having to check in with an officer that is only too happy to take heavy advantage of her.

It’s the characters that run this film, Rapace has become quite the new find in cinema. The good news here is that there are two more films on the way (both already filmed and on the way this year). Although these films are for a very mature and adult audience, don’t let the dark levels it plumbs to fool you, there is still room for much beauty and humanity mixed in amongst all of the inhumanity our leads have to contend with.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is not one to be missed and is easily one of this year’s best films, and one of the best thrillers in a long time. Plus, The Girl Who Played With Fire is just around the corner!

Steven Hurst