The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009 film)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Swedish theatrical release poster
Swedish	Män som hatar kvinnor
Directed by	Niels Arden Oplev
Screenplay by	Rasmus Heisterberg Nikolaj Arcel
Based on	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Produced by	Søren Stærmose
Starring	Michael Nyqvist Noomi Rapace Ingvar Hirdwall Björn Granath Lena Endre Ewa Fröling Marika Lagercrantz
Cinematography	Eric Kress
Edited by	Anne Østerud
Music by	Jacob Groth
Production companies	Yellow Bird ZDF Enterprises Sveriges Television Nordisk Film ZDF Filmpool Stockholm-Mälardalen Film i Väst Spiltan Underhållning
Distributed by	Nordisk Film (Sweden/Denmark) NFP Marketing & Film Distribution (Germany)
Release dates	27 February 2009 (2009-02-27) (Sweden and Denmark) 1 October 2009 (2009-10-01) (Germany)
Running time	153 minutes[1]
Countries	Sweden Denmark Germany[2][3]
Language	Swedish
Budget	$13 million[4]
Box office	$104 million[4]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor, lit. 'Men who hate women') is a 2009 Swedish-Danish crime thriller film with German co-production directed by Niels Arden Oplev from a screenplay by Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel and produced by Søren Stærmose, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, the first entry in his Millennium series. The film stars Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.

That same year, two sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, were released in September and November, respectively.

Plot[edit]

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In December 2002, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of independent magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving unproven allegations that he published about billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Lisbeth Salander, a freelance surveillance agent and hacker, is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to conduct a background check on Blomkvist.

Vanger subsequently hires Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who vanished on Children's Day in 1966. Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a family member. Henrik explains that his brothers—Richard, Gottfried and Harald—are supporters of the Nazi regime. Richard died in 1940, and Gottfried, Harriet's father, drowned prior to her disappearance. All remaining family members are suspects, notably Harald due to his still-strong Nazi views. Henrik also reveals that someone has been sending him pressed flowers on his birthday every year, something that Harriet did before her disappearance.

Lisbeth's state guardian has a stroke, and she is placed under the guardianship of Nils Bjurman. He is controlling of her finances, threatening to send her back to a mental institution unless she obeys him. Lisbeth is attacked by a group of drunk men in the subway, resulting in a broken laptop. She returns to see Bjurman, who forces her to perform fellatio on him in return for money for a new computer, but does not give her the full amount. The next day, she meets him at his apartment for more money, where he handcuffs and rapes her. Lisbeth later returns, tasers Bjurman, and ties him up. Revealing she recorded the rape, she then proceeds to rape Bjurman with a dildo. She states she will release the footage to the police unless he gives her full control of her finances, provides glowing reports, and signs off as her guardian in a year, afterwards tattooing "I am a sadistic pig and a rapist" on his abdomen.

Blomkvist moves onto the estate and meets Martin, Harriet's brother, who is now head of the Vanger group, and who says he suspects Harriet ran away. Later, Blomkvist finds a list of five names with numbers attached. Police inspector Morell ascertains that they are not phone numbers, and that the case is unsolvable. Blomkvist notices suspicious pictures of Harriet from the Children's Day parade and determines that she may have seen her murderer that day.

Salander, using her access to Blomkvist's laptop, theorises that the numbers in Harriet's diary are references to verses in the Book of Leviticus and emails Blomkvist anonymously. Blomkvist determines that Salander sent the email and hires her as a research assistant. Together, Blomkvist and Salander connect all but one of the names on Harriet's list to murdered women. They are all Jewish names, which intrigues Blomkvist, as the Vanger family has a long history of antisemitism. During the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander become lovers.

They suspect Henrik's reclusive brother Harald to be the murderer, as he was the only other brother alive when Harriet disappeared. Salander searches through Vanger's business records to trace Harald to the crime scenes, while Blomkvist breaks into Harald's house, believing it to be unoccupied. Harald attacks Blomkvist, but Martin appears and saves him. Martin takes Blomkvist to his home, where Blomkvist reveals what he and Salander have uncovered. Martin then drugs Blomkvist. Salander's search of the company accounts points to Martin and his late father, Gottfried, as having been jointly responsible for the murders. She returns to the cottage to find Blomkvist missing.

Blomkvist wakes to find himself bound in Martin's cellar. Martin explains that Gottfried began teaching him to rape, torture, and kill as a teenager. Martin boasts about raping and murdering women for decades since his father's death. However, he denies killing Harriet, insisting that she disappeared. As Martin is in the process of hanging Blomkvist, Salander appears and attacks him with a golf club. While she frees Blomkvist, Martin flees in his car. Salander gives chase on her motorcycle. When Martin crashes, Salander finds him still alive but paralysed in the vehicle. She walks away as the car catches fire and he burns to death.

Blomkvist and Salander discover that Harriet has been using Anita's name and is still alive in Australia. Blomkvist reunites Harriet with Henrik. Harriet explains the truth about her disappearance and that her father and brother raped and abused her. Harriet notes that her brother was harsher to her than her father and that she knew that remaining on the island would lead to her death at her brother's hands. To let Henrik know that she was alive, Harriet sent him a pressed flower every year.

Salander visits Blomkvist in prison and gives him new information on the Wennerström case. From prison, Blomkvist publishes a new story on Wennerström in Millennium which ruins Wennerström and restores Blomkvist's reputation. Wennerström is later found dead; his offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands is raided by a young woman caught on CCTV, whom Blomkvist recognises as Salander in a blonde wig. The film ends with Salander, now wealthy and living under an assumed identity, as she walks along a sunny beach promenade.

Cast[edit]

Release[edit]

Critical response[edit]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was well received by critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a normalised score of 85% based on 188 reviews, with an average score of 72.7/10. The critical consensus is: "Its graphic violence and sprawling length will prove too much for some viewers to take, but Noomi Rapace's gripping performance makes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo an unforgettable viewing experience."^[5] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 76% based on reviews from 36 critics.^[6] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four, noting that "[the film] is a compelling thriller to begin with, but it adds the rare quality of having a heroine more fascinating than the story".^[7]

Box office[edit]

The film grossed more than $10 million in the US and Canada in a limited release of 202 theatres.^[4] The total gross worldwide is $104,617,430.^[4][8]

Awards and nominations[edit]

TV miniseries[edit]

French premium pay television channel Canal+ aired extended versions of the three films as a miniseries between March and June 2010, before the theatrical release of the second and third films, consisting of six parts of 90 minutes each. The first part attracted 1.2 million viewers, the largest audience of a foreign series at Canal+ that year.^[9] The series aired on US pay-for-view cable networks in the weeks leading up to the release of David Fincher's 2011 film adaptation of the novel.

A home video set of all six parts of the miniseries was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Music Box Home Entertainment on 6 December 2011.

See also[edit]

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (American adaptation)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at IMDb
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Swedish Film Institute Database
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at Box Office Mojo
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at Metacritic
• Charlie Rose: A look at the film 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' with director Niels Arden Oplev