The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

About forty years ago, a girl named Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island, owned by the Vagner clan. Although her body was never found, her uncle is confident that she was murdered by a member of his own family. He hires a disgraced financial journalist and a tattooed and troubled but resourceful computer hacker to look in to the case.

When they link Harriet's disappearance to a number of brutal murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history.

by Music Box Films

At first I was a bit skeptical to watch a Swedish film, since I'm not really a fan of foreign productions, but I'm glad I did. It turned out to be one of the best thrillers I've seen. What strikes you is the level of graphic violence, especially sexual violence, that might be too much for some people. However this helps establish a basic theme of the film, which is the impact of violence on its victims and the effect on their personalities.

The film benefits from a number of great performances, especially Noomi Rapace playing Lisbeth Salander. While the film is almost 2.5 hours long it keeps you glued to the screen. As the story progresses, some loose ends are created, but they are tied brilliantly at the end.

Author Stieg Larsson, who died suddenly in 2004, left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death.

The first was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"), published in English as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was awarded the prestigious Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005.

His second novel, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006.

The third novel in the so-called Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, was published in the United States in May 2010.

by Wikipedia