Film Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Last night, Mom and I went down to the movies to watch Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Neither of us had read the book. I had tried, once upon a time, but barely made it through the first 100 pages. I just could not get into it, so I gave up.

The movie made me feel like giving up too. The first half of the movie is very disjointed and fragmented and hard to follow. In fact, all I could take away from it is that the girl, Lisbeth, is batshit crazy. But crazy in a  way that is very easy to relate to. In the second half, she works with Mikael to solve a 50+ year old mystery.

All in all, the movie was pretty good. I enjoyed it. After you wrestle through the first 45 minutes or so, it becomes very easy to follow, and the beginning of the movie makes sense.

There are a few things I'd like to call attention to.

• There's a pretty graphic rape scene in the movie, along with a lot of gratuitous (consensual) sex.
• There's a little violence, and by a little, I mean a moderate amount. There's a murder mystery in this movie, so of course there must be murder.
• Rooney Mara is fabulous as Lisbeth, and Daniel Craig is amazing as Mikael. The rest of the cast does a pretty good job too, including Joely Richardson, who appears to be rapidly aging, Christopher Plummer, and a batshit crazy Stellan Skaarsgard.
• The scenery was pretty great too. This is a very Swedish movie, although this version is in English, and it was filmed on location in Sweden.
• Finally, I'd like to mention that Rooney Mara, gorgeous in real life, plays the very alternative-looking Lisbeth with such conviction that she went and got all of the piercings that her character has. That's right folks, all those piercings are not cosmetic, they are real.

Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig

This movie is really insane. The characters are insane, and it sometimes is hard to plod through, but in the end, it's not bad. I give it 7/10, for losing me in the beginning, but finding me later.

Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander