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Movie review 27 - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Dir. David Fincher


The movie follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he investigates the disappearance of industrialist Henrik Vanger's (Christopher Plummer) niece Harriet, 40 years ago.


The movie is quite dark and disturbing most of the time, but the tone of a dark mystery still stays constant throughout. Daniel Craig acted quite well, in my opinion. I noticed this was filmed during the time period of his James Bond films, and I'm glad that he did not show any part of Bond in the movie. His mannerisms, the way he talks is very different, and it is quite good. Rooney Mara, who plays Lisbeth Salander, was also very good her acting was very good. The character stayed quite consistent throughout, maintaining a gloomy, dark vibe.


The opening credits and the music is actually quite good, the ink and the dark theme was a perfect fit.


The beginning of the story is quite boring, and I found it difficult to watch. Once the story of Lisbeth started to hit the fan, I got hooked. While Lisbeth and Mikael don't meet until after an hour in the movie, the story still stays interesting with Mikael investigating and finding a lot about the murders that have happened. The scenes of them looking at evidence and finding evidence are quite thrilling. You don't start to think who the killer is but are eager to find out which helps in preventing theorizing. The entire story is very interesting and definitely can be called a thriller.


The reveal that Anita Vanger (Joely Richardson) is actually Harriet, I did not see that coming. The scenes of them connecting the murders and the and quotes was quite exciting to watch.

At the end, when the killers and the rapists are revealed, it feels very anticlimactic. I mean there were no hints that Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgård) is one of the killer/rapist who took after his father died. The father Gottfried is a suspect who is actually the other killer/rapist, has scenes of connecting the dots that he is the one. They (Gottfried and Martin) not only do this a lot of girls but even the sister/daughter which makes them much worse than monsters. They could've maybe shown some more scenes with Martin maybe trying to cover something up or maybe saying things out of context that could've hinted he is the killer/rapist. One thing I would say is that the things they did is quite gory and even sadistic.

The ending of Mikael still being with his other lover and technically leaving Lisbeth alone was not needed, I believe. They could have just shown her leaving it at his house and ending the film there.


One thing that bothered me was the family tree. Whenever the family was being interviewed or the family was being discussed, I got very confused as to who is related to who. They could have done a better job making sure they explicitly said who is connected to whom when Henrik is explaining to Mikael. They could've also made Mikael's murder board in a family tree that would've helped.

Another thing is that they show Lisbeth getting all the money, but then they end up showing her back in the same old place where she lives. Maybe they could've shown her rich in some other country, enjoying life, and leaving her past behind.


Overall, the movie definitely has a good dark-mystery and thriller aspect to it. It is a good one-time watch in my opinion, but it's definitely worth watching. 8/10


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My next review is going to be Drishyam (2015)


Check this out on Medium.




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