To The Movies: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

When a storyline from a book is turned into a movie, the movie becomes its own text. The basic storyline may be the same, but when changes are made in order to fit the movie within a time limit or to highlight an element or theme that the people involved in the movie feels is important—they make the story their own. I will focus these features on movies made based on books I have read—I want to look beyond whether I think the movie is better or worse than the book. I want to appreciate and review the movie as a companion to the book.
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Genre: Drama, Thriller
Actors: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, and Christopher Plummer
Director: David Fincher
Scriptwriter: Steven Zaillian
Release Date: December 20, 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Movie Info: IMDB | Website
Review of The Millennium Trilogy: Here
Rating: 3 Stars
Purchased ticket.

In A Nutshell:
I loved the books!  I loved the Swedish versions of the movies!  I went to see this movie with some apprehension--how will it compare.  In the end, I am glad I watched it but I have a few concerns about what I saw.

Review:

After seeing this movie poster--I did not have high hopes for this movie.  The image did not necessarily offend me, but I could not see a woman like Lisbeth, who had been so thoroughly victimized by society, actually posing like that.   I have also watched the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and I loved it.  Why did we need another version?  I mention these two issues because I feel that they may have affected my feelings about this movie.

There were things I really liked about this movie.  I loved that it was longer--and that with the added length we got to see more of the details from the book.  We got to see more of the process that lead Mikael and Lisbeth to uncover the truth.  It was those details that drew me into the book--and I loved seeing them come to life on the screen.

But there were a few more things that I did not like about the move.  First (and I am warning you now that this one is a spoiler), they changed the ending.  Rather than having Anita Vanger and Harriet Vanger living separate lives in separate countries--they had Harriet taking over Anita's life after her untimely death 20 years earlier.  Why?  I also question how realistic this modification is.  What are the chances that someone in the Vanger family would not have travelled to London in 20 years and in traveling to London would not have looked up their family member who lived there?  I understand that this family was dysfunctional--but the risk seemed a little too high for me considering how easily Mikael found Anita/Harriet in London.

Second (I really don't feel this is a spoiler), the opening sequence with the leading cast members' name listed.  The sequence is very fast and graphically interesting, but it is too fast.  It is hard to determine what the pictures actually depict--and consequently the meaning they are trying to convey.  And without understanding the meaning it felt like a awful lot of time to waste in the course of the story.  This sequence is also situated between the opening clip and the rest of the movie--so the lack of meaning stood out to me quite substantially.  The imagery also did not come up later--so it seemed out of place.

Third (could be considered by some to be a spoiler), I missed having the end tied to the beginning.  In the book--it was such an important moment when Harriet, Henrik and Mikael are looking at the flowers and she explains that she sent them hoping that Henrik would know that she was safe somewhere.  In the movie--their story ends at Harriet and Henrik hugging at the front door.  I missed that imagery and that moment that tied back to the opening sequence--the moment when Henrik decided that he was going to find out what happened to Harriet no matter what.  

I do not regret watching the movie--in fact I will say that I am glad I went to see the movie.  But I liked the Swedish version more and will probably buy that version rather than waiting for this version to come out on DVD.

Recommendations:
It comes in an extended version!! I want it!!

Series In Review: The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Series are a tricky thing. I have series that I love as a whole, but an individual book within the series did not impress me.  So I am not always sure that reviewing the individual books is fair to the author's vision. However, I do not want to postpone all of my reviews of the books within a series until the end. With those thoughts in mind I decided to start Series In Review. In these postings, I will be looking at more than one book in the series or if possible the entire series at one time.
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**This review may contain spoilers for some of the books in the series**



Genre: Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers
Books Released in Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Author Info: Website
Rating: 4 Stars 
Borrowed from library.

In A Nutshell:

This trilogy completely took my breath away.  I went through so many emotions while listening to these books.  I have never seen the victimization of a character so completely described.  It brought feelings of disgust and outrage.  However at the end I felt relief; relief that the books were over and that I was satisfied at the end. 

Stieg Larsson’s characters were intriguing and realistically flawed.  The plot line of each book draws the reader in.  Stieg Larsson explained a lot of the elements of Swedish culture and Swedish law that affected the story, so the story was not hard to follow.  However, some of the issues covered and some of the scenes themselves are distressing. 

Review:

I struggled a little with the rating of this series.  I loved it.  It was very well written, but it was hard to read so I cannot say I will read it again.  This trilogy is not for the faint of heart.  There are descriptions of a lot of events that are creepy, violent, and even sadistic.  I do not think that Stieg Larsson’s intent in writing was to disgust the reader with these descriptions; the real feelings of disgust should be about the inhumane way that Lizbeth Salander was treated by so many of the authority figures that touched her life. 

The defining moment for me happened when Prosecutor Ekstrom realizes that Lizbeth Salander is the victim, she was always the victim.  And Ekstrom was nothing more than a tool in a plot to continue victimizing her.  The feeling that overcame him when he realized what had happened right under his nose; I almost felt sorry for him.  But my sympathies lie firmly with Lizbeth Salander. 

As an American reading this book, I think it would be easy to blame this victimization on the Swedish laws; the loopholes that were exploited to allow this victimization to happen.  And I do believe that exposing those loopholes may have been part of why Stieg Larsson wrote the books.  He devoted a lot of time to explaining the Swedish laws and constitution, and how The Section was able to function without notice within those laws and within that constitution.  But I think that thinking about this story as a Swedish problem is too easy. 

While I agree that the victimization started and was perpetuated by The Section.  They were not the only ones who victimized Lizbeth Salander.  She was victimized by her father, and in some ways her mother who did not leave her father.  She was victimized by her legal guardian.  In some ways, I would even say she was victimized by the school she had attended as a child that told stories about her to the media.  Even if the stories were true, I found myself asking why no one at the school tried to delve deeper to see if there was more behind her acting out.  In the end, we learn that Lizbeth Salandar is a very intelligent person, but not one teacher saw that?  All of these entities are part of most, if not all, societies, and could victimize a person of any nationality.  This is not a Swedish problem—it is a problem that everyone should be looking at.  How can we prevent ourselves and others from being victims?

In general, I am not a proponent of resorting to violence.  However, in the context of this story I did not see that Lizbeth Salander was given many options.  She could not turn to the authorities.  The people who should have been protecting her had no qualms about using violence against her.  What was she to do?  However, the propensity for Lizbeth Salander and others in this story to resort to violence made aspects of the books overwhelming.  I do not feel that Stieg Larsson was excessive in his use of violence.  In Lizbeth Salander, he created a character who would protect herself if attacked but who did not seek out opportunities to attack or be violent.  She really wanted society in general and the government in particular to stay out of her life. 

Lizbeth Salander was an intriguing character.  While I hesitate to call her likable, she is a character that will stick with me for a long time.  She was socially awkward, but she did have friends.  Friends, like Plague and Trinity, who she reached out to when she needed help the most.  Friends, like Blomkvist and Armansky, who reached out to help her without her asking.  She inspired an uncommon level of dedication in those she let close to her, and in exchange she would give them in return an uncommonly high level of dedication.  She was not always an easy friend, but she was dependable.  She tried to do the best by the people she allowed close to her.

 
Recommendations:
I was sad to learn that Stieg Larsson died before his books became the international sensation they are today.  There are two books, however, that I would like to read about his life, which are written by people who were close to him.

I have also watched all three of the movies and definitely recommend them.  However, I do caution people that they are explicit movies--they do show parts of the violent rape from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.