You know, it’s not THAT often I have a quiet night in.
No, scrub that.
It’s not that often I have a quiet Tuesday night in, these days: at least, not on my own.
Recently …
Saying that, I’ve got to admit, I had a fairly busy day, today: what with doing some shopping, this morning, and have both Kevin D, Dr Kevin, Kelly the Charmer and her mate Steve all popping in to say “Hello”, today.
At any rate, that left me having a very late dinner.
And not having much to do.
And with little to watch on TV, I had thought I should maybe catch up with a film I’d got from the library a couple of days ago, and not actually watched …
The film in question … ?
The 2009, Niels Arden Oplev directed, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Also known as Män Som Hatar Kvinnor: Men Who Hate Women, in English.
And, granted the original Swedish title is a touch less poetic, but is accurate, given the nature of the film, itself.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sees Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced investigative journalist who’s given a job trying to track down the killer of his childhood babysitter.
What Blomkvist isn’t aware of is that his employer — the reclusive corporate headman, Henrik Vanger, played by Sven-Bertil Taube — has hired ace computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander — Noomi Rapace — to investigate him.
And it’s she — the Girl of the title — who manages to find the important first clue in the case, by working out that what seem like phone numbers, are actually references to a very well know book.
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Now, in all honesty, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
There are one or two scenes I know are going to make some people uncomfortable: the main one I’m thinking of is one that I believe is justified, and has a following scene that has involves a certain amount of … let’s call it payback … but wasn’t one I found comfortable to watch.
However, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo IS a very nicely done crime thriller: one with a nicely constructed, twisty plot, and a pair of very sympathetically drawn central characters.
Especially that of Lisbeth Salander, herself.
She’s a complex and wounded soul.
But one who we learn about, through-out the course of the film, itself: we find out how she’s been wounded, through both childhood and early adulthood.
And get to see where her incredibly pronounced sense of direct-action justice comes from, something she shares with Blomkvist: I get the feeling he’s one of the few men she does feel any kind of emotional connection with.
Which leaves me to suggest you go and check out the Swedish language original of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
You may find yourself liking it.
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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
★★★☆
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