January 2, 2012

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Includes some spoiler alerts for the book and both movies.



I will start by saying that I love these books and in three months, I'm now half way through the third book and have seen both the Swedish and U.S. version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The first couple chapters of the book are a little hard to get through, but if you can do it, you will not be disappointed.



The U.S. film is exactly what I pictured when I read the book. From the location, to the characters, to the plot, all the same. Some feel the Swedish version is better, but I actually disagree.  At first I thought that Daniel Craig was a horrible pick for Mikael Blomkvist, but at the end of the film, I realized he is actually the perfect pick. And Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander was fantastic.



The U.S. film starts off the same as the book, with Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) receiving yet another framed flower on his birthday, sent to him by the person he thinks killed his beloved niece, Harriet. We then jump to Blomkvist getting convicted of libel in a case with Wennerstrom. And then to Frode getting the report from Armansky and Salander about Blomkvist's background.  Blomkvist is then traveling to Vanger's property on assignment to write a biography on the Vanger family, while really just investigating the disappearance of Harriet.



While this is going on Salander's guardian suffers a stroke and she is assigned a new guardian by the state.  This guardian abuses his power, as well as Salander. She no longer has control over her finances, so she must go to Bjurman every time she needs money. And he feels in return for him signing a check, she should provide him sexual favors. While at first, she thought it would be just oral sex, the second time, when she's ready to film the incident for blackmail, Bjurman actually chains her up and rapes her every which way. This particular scene was very hard to watch.



After she gets even with Bjurman, and takes over control of her finances again, Blomkvist courts her to help him in the investigation into Harriet, which actually turns into an investigation into a serial rapist and killer of women. As the two get closer to figuring out what happen to Harriet and who may have killed her, they also get closer to each other. Soon, Salander, who is closed off and often socially inept, is warming to Blomkvist. And they are also sleeping together.



And just as in the book, Blomkvist and Salander figure out who the serial killer is at the same time, but at different locations. Blomkvist goes to confront the suspect, while Salander rushes home to find the cottage empty. She arrives at the suspect's home just in time to save Blomkvist, follow the killer up the road, over the bridge and cause an accident, where he essentially burns to death in the crash.



Realizing that this suspect didn't kill Harriet, Blomkvist and Salander conclude that Harriet is probably alive and they travel to London to pay another visit to Harriet's cousin, Anita. The pair quickly determine that Anita is Harriet and are able to reunite her with Vanger. This was the only slight variation from the book. In the book, Anita leads Blomkvist to Australia to find Harriet, where she runs a successful farm with her family.



The entire film was almost parallel to the book, minus the fact that Blomkvist goes to jail toward the end of the film, instead of during his investigation into Harriet.



The Swedish version removed a lot of the story, including the part of the story where Blomkvist is having an ongoing-affair with his editor of the paper he works for. This is a key point in the plot. And because it was omitted in the Swedish version, that ending was slightly different.

In fact, in the Swedish version, Salander actually reaches out to Blomkvist first, instead of vice versa. She monitors his computer and sends him an email about some of the Harriet investigation and the connection to bible quotes. Whereas in the book and the U.S. version, it's actually Blomkvist's daughter who helps him realize the connection. The end of the Swedish version just glazes over how Salander empties Wennerstrom's bank accounts and steals all his money and has Blomkvist realize what she did, whereas the book and U.S. version, explain in detail how she goes about this and Blomkvist never makes the connection.



The Swedish version also does some flashbacks of how Salander tries to kill her father. In the U.S. version, she casually mentions that she tried to kill her father. In the series, we don't find this out until the second book. I didn't care for that actually.



In addition, the Swedish version ends there, whereas the book and U.S. version show how Salander is falling for Blomkvist. She heads to give him an expensive leather jacket she bought him, sees him with his lover and storms off, without him ever knowing.  This is key to why she actually leaves the country to travel for a year, which is how the second book/film will start.

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I really did enjoy this on many levels. It is a very long film, but there is so much in the book that it has to fit in. I do recommend reading the books first, as the books explain so much more than a film can. But the U.S. version does a great job of portraying this. I can NOT wait to see how the other books are portrayed by Craig and Mara. Though I will most definitely see the Swedish films while I wait.  However, I will finish the third book before I see the rest of the films, as I fear that they may foreshadow how the series ends, which I don't like.



4 stars.