The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Director: Niels Arden Oplev Niels Arden Oplev

Overview

A discredited journalist and a mysterious computer hacker discover that even the wealthiest families have skeletons in their closets while working to solve the mystery of a 40-year-old murder. Inspired by late author Stieg Larsson's successful trilogy of books, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets under way as Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander are briefed in the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, whose uncle suspects she may have been killed by a member of their own family. The deeper Mikael and Lisbeth dig for the truth, however, the greater the risk of being buried alive by members of the family who will go to great lengths to keep their secrets tightly sealed.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/06/2010
UPC:	0705105743950
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	R
Source:	Music Box Films
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:00:00
Sales rank:	14,391

Special Features

Interview with Naomi Rapace; The Vanger Family Tree; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Michael Nyqvist	Mikael Blomkvist
Noomi Rapace	Lisbeth Salander
Lena Endre	Erika Berger
Sven-Bertil Taube	Henrik Vanger
Peter Haber	Martin Vanger
Peter Andersson	Nils Bjurman
Marika Lagercrantz	Cecilia Vanger
Ingvar Hirdwall	Dirch Frode
Björn Granath	Gustav Morell
Ewa Fröling	Harriet Vanger
Michalis Koutsogiannakis	Dragan Armanskij
Annika Hallin	Annika Giannini
Sofia Ledarp	Malin Eriksson
Tomas Köhler	Plague(as Thomas Köhler)
David Dencik	Janne Dahlman
Stefan Sauk	Hans-Erik Wennerström
Gösta Bredefeldt	Harald Vanger
Fredrik Ohlsson	Gunnar Brännlund
Jacob Ericksson	Christer Malm
Gunnel Lindblom	Isabella Vanger
Barbro Enberg	Older lady
Reuben Sallmander	Enrico Giannini
Yasmine Garbi	Mimmi Wu
Georgi Staykov	Alexander Zalachenko
Nina Norén	Agneta Salander
Emil Almén	Police officer
Louise Ryme	Receptionist
Pale Olofsson	Judge
Mikael Rahm	Editor
Willie Andréason	Birger Vanger
Lennart Svensson	Police officer in woods
Jacob Groth	Composer
Per Oscarsson	Holger Palmgren
Michael Niqvist	Actor
Peter Anderssen	Actor

Technical Credits

Niels Arden Oplev	Director
Anni Faurbye Fernandez	Executive Producer
Lone Korslund	Executive Producer
Peter Nadermann	Executive Producer
Ole Søndberg	Executive Producer
Mikael Wallen	Executive Producer
Søren Stærmose	Producer
Lars Hjelm	Stunts
Tusse Lande	Casting
Soren Staermose	Producer
Anders Hörling	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Adapting a best-seller for the screen is normally a safe bet for a studio, but a decidedly risky proposition for a director. While there is a considerable built-in audience that is virtually guaranteed to buy a ticket, many of those viewers are predisposed to criticize the film because of its inevitable differences from the book. While the most dedicated fans of Stieg Larsson's international best-seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will find enough discrepancies in Niels Arden Oplev's film to help them achieve their nitpicking fix, it is difficult to imagine anyone exiting the theater feeling disappointed by this riveting thriller. Regardless of the story, readers know that the film will succeed or fail on the basis of its depiction of the book's most memorable character, the punk-rock Sherlock Lisbeth Salander, an investigator extraordinaire who prefers black leather, a spiked collar, and Doc Martens to her predecessor's cape coat, deerstalker hat, and loafers. Lisbeth is utterly embodied by Swedish starlet Noomi Rapace, who did a "De Niro" to prepare for the role by getting several real piercings, studying kickboxing and motorcycle riding, and losing a dangerous amount of weight to shrink into Lisbeth's skinny frame. Beneath the stoic composure required by Salander's extreme social estrangement, Rapace masterfully conveys her character's complex mixture of violence and vulnerability, often using only expression, gesture, and tone. Rapace's presence as Lisbeth is more of a manifestation than a performance, an astonishing achievement that is even more impressive considering the overwhelming global expectations for the role. Danish director Niels Arden Oplev (To Verdener) does an equally impressive disappearing act, as he resists the urge to immerse Larsson's pitch-dark plot with superfluous violence and cinematic flash. The film features one searing scene of a vicious assault against Salander that is absolutely harrowing and hard to watch, but Oplev (and Larsson) later reverse the positions of power to produce one of the most memorable scenes of redemptive violence in film history. These two scenes are so skillfully balanced against one another that their resonance of male aggression and its repercussions carries through the rest of the film, allowing Oplev to forego the necessity for further graphic depictions. After establishing this tone of grim urgency, the director uses the tools of his trade to meticulously heighten the tension and embellish the literary plot with injections of pure cinema, such as when Mikael Blomkvist (played with sedate determination by Michael Nyqvist) uses new technology to conjure a ghost from a series of old photographs. As the protagonists dig deeper into the central mystery, the scope and gravity of the crime accumulates and the pressure builds to a striking climax that flirts with Hollywood convention just long enough to enhance the shock and delight of its eventual vicissitude. Those who have never read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be mesmerized by the addictive mystery at its center, involving Nazis, biblical murders, and a family that forever redefines dysfunction. Those who already know the solution to the mystery can still relish Noomi Rapace's impeccable rendition of Lisbeth Salander while they scrutinize the screen for disparities that might drag it down below the novel on the imaginary scale of universal artistic quality. But this outstanding film is all that could be hoped for from such a prominent adaptation, which means that there will be plenty of room beneath it on that artistic scale for the inevitable Hollywood remake.