‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ Entertains Rather Than Exhilarates

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Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Literary mysteries are harder to adapt for the big screen than one might assume. The trick is to make audiences feel like they’re discovering secrets right alongside the characters. We want to share in their exhilaration, their terror, their epiphanies.

We don’t want wordy explanations, which are the only “thrills” offered from Ron Howard’s botched “Da Vinci Code” films. We want an out-of-body experience, which is exactly what a film like Guillaume Canet’s “Tell No One” delivers. Canet adapted Harlan Coben’s novel in a way that allowed viewers to follow in the footsteps of his protagonist as he uncovered one stunning secret after another. It was a commercial triumph at art houses across America, and now “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” seems to be aiming for a similar success. And while it is no “Tell No One,” it is certainly no “Da Vinci Code” either.

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” in our reviews section.

The film’s massive financial success in Sweden may be partly due to the popularity of the source material. “Dragon Tattoo” is based on the first book in the bestselling “Millennium Trilogy” by Stieg Larsson, who died before its publication. There are enough subplots and backstories in this initial cinematic installment to fill a miniseries, and there are times when it seems overcrowded even at a running time of two-and-a-half hours. The script by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg doesn’t quite feel like a final draft (and could’ve benefitted from some tightening), but director Niels Arden Oplev somehow manages to keep the audience hooked.

Like “Tell No One,” the central mystery in “Dragon Tattoo” concerns the inexplicable disappearance of a beloved woman. Disgraced journalist Mikael (Michael Nyqvist) finds himself in a rut after his publication is accused of libel. In need of an escape, he decides to investigate a case brought to him by an elderly industrialist, who suspects that his wealthy family did away with his beloved niece forty years ago. Her framed face haunts the proceedings like Laura Palmer in “Twin Peaks,” as Mikael quickly finds himself immersed in a case loaded with prime suspects and red herrings.

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” in our reviews section.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Photo credit: Music Box Films