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Surprisingly, the publishing sensation that was The Millennium Trilogy has not been become another Ron Howard / Tom Hanks Hollywood styled international sensation. Yet. First Niels Oplev secured the rights to turn his fellow Scandinavian's blockbuster into a blockbusting sensation of his own. At least, that was the intention. Starring global unknowns who, for two and a half hours, set out to entangle then unravel lies and deceit of such magnitude that makes Silent Witness seem like a walk in the park, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a crime-busting tour de force.
He's a blood-thirsty journo silenced by corporate legals. She's a wounded youngster turned corporate hacker. Together they form an unlikely, and somewhat unholy, alliance when the head of a wealthy family recruits him to look for his dead daughter. As the onion is peeled, dark secrets are revealed and lives begin to unravel in an emotionally disturbing fashion. Quite what this has to do with the corporate silencing that bookends the film, or a stomach churning rape that sets the emotional landscape, is not immediately clear. Come to think of it, it's never really made clear at all.
Therein Oplev's dilemma and one not adequately addressed: with enough material to create a trilogy from one book alone, how do you hit the narrative markers, satisfy a rabid fan-base and create a self-supporting movie? A solution is to give it the TV treatment and in many ways, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo soon feels like a Tuesday night crime drama on SBS. It's not quite Inspector Rex, Oplev's treatment is much darker and nastier than that. Yet it also retains a sensibility that suggests many questions will be answered in time: want to know why she has a dragon tattoo? Stay tuned. It's a risky ploy, especially if the meat of this story isn't enticing enough to have you coming back for seconds. Or thirds.
Nonetheless, fans probably will and Oplev gives enough treats to win over the rest of us, most of the time. Especially if you have a taste for crime-busting drama a la SBS. However if you're hanging out for the self-contained blockbuster, wait and see if Ron and Tom have other ideas in mind.
// COLIN FRASER
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks