The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

It's hard for me to explain exactly why I didn't like this movie. The direction is tight, the performances are very well done (especially from Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth, the girl of the title), and there are plenty of twists and turns. And yet...

I believe the main problem for me was the story. From the get-go we are introduced to Lisbeth and Mikael Blomkvist, leading completely separate lives. Lisbeth is a young gothic looking reporter who works for a newspaper getting important scoops for them. Mikael is a high profile journalist who has been sentenced to jail for making false accusations about a high up businessman. Both their personalities are set up quite well, but what's immediately lacking is a reason to care about these people. We are simply following them around as they go about their mundane activities. Even when Mikael gets a mysterious call from the Vanger Group to investigate a case before he goes to jail, it just seems like an almost cliched plot point instead of a big mystery. And when Lisbeth goes through some nearly unwatchable scenes with her new guardian, the gruesomeness of it feels tacked on and unnecessary. When the two inevitably meet, their chemistry is quite charming and brings a much needed boost to the dragging plot. Then the actual mystery kicks into gear, which for the most part consists of Mikael looking through files, long transposed shots of photographs, and Lisbeth being a no nonsense hardass while still seeming quite vulnerable.

It's such a stereotypical mystery that not only is almost every single twist and turn forseeable (it's not actually the first OR second person you thought was guilty? Shocking!), but even when they're not it just doesn't feel like it carries any meaning to it. Maybe I'm just so used to Law and Order or almost any other crime drama on TV these days that I'm used to this entire plot being boiled down into one episode. **SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT** A disgraced journalist is hired by an old man from wealthy company to look into the disappearance of his daughter 40 years ago. He agrees to it as he has nothing to lose. He meets a quirky girl with rare insight who helps him on the case. They travel together gathering clues. Through many twists they eventually solve the case just in time to save one of them from getting killed. The journalist helps get his job back with the girl's help, who then leaves mysteriously but is shown to be doing just fine in the end. **END SPOILERS**

Not only are the plot points so unabashedly familiar and dry that you know the end of the movie from the beginning, but there's a gaping bit of development left out that would've made the film 10 times more entertaining. The relationship between all of the family members (who are all suspects) living together on this island is barely addressed, and each member is instead only used to shed a little detail on one clue/detail in the case before disappearing. So much more could've been done with them (and maybe it was in the book?). Also, the tracking of the clues is dull and boring as they go to a location, say "Yep, just what we thought," and then head back.

In short, just like the mystery involved this plot feels about 40 years too old and is a mystery that should've just stayed in the past. The direction, acting, and even dialogue are all tight, but the story being told is simply one I really could've cared less about.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo gets a 6.5/10.