The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Film 21/50

If Daniel Craig showed up on my doorstep uninvited, I'd let him in, too.

Back in January, I promised that I'd eventually get around to seeing this film (having read the book and seen the Swedish version). Now to compare and contrast them all.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) Film 5/50

"But I just had to look/Having read the book."

-Lennon/McCartney

So here comes my review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film version #1 (aka the version that doesn't star Daniel Craig). Fortunately, a good deal of what I disliked about the book (mainly the exhausting introduction of every character and three major plot points) was revised for this film adaptation. That being said, there were certainly alterations that made for a considerable difference in the portrayal of the lead characters. Take Mikael Blomkvist, for instance. In the book, his character slept with every female who threw herself at him. In the movie, his character was far more chaste, almost to the point of infantile at times. Not to mention being a bit of a dimwit in comparison to his literary depiction. I'm looking forward to seeing how Daniel Craig compares.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Book 4/50

If you can make it through the first 300 pages or so, this book is smooth sailing up to the end. Or for the next 215 pages, at least.

The first half of this book is devoted purely to introducing all of the players, along with the three major plot points: Reporter Mikael Blomkvist vs. the Swedish Mafia, the Titular Character vs. the World, and this Teeny-Tiny Cold-Case Murder vs. the Other Two Plot Points. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for setting the stage by giving us backstory and character motivation. But I think those 300 pages could have been condensed to, oh say, 100 or so.

Once you get past the months and months is takes Blomkvist to learn the Vangar family tree (starting with Adam and Eve and their third cousins, Gottfried and Henrik) to the point where the cold-case actually manages a breakthrough, the book flies. Unfortunately, you have to survive some severely graphic rape scenes and the least threatening prison experience to get there.