If you want to understand the title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don’t blink. Lisbeth Salander, the movie’s inked-up heroine, does have a massive, detailed tattoo of a dragon encompassing her entire back and a good chunk of her leg, but during the film’s two and a half hours, it gets no mention and only passing screen time. Like much of Salander’s dark, troubled, and oddly appealing nature, the body art never receives enough attention or explanation to warrant its inclusion in the title. The girl who bears the tattoo, however, is well-deserving of her prime billing.
Salander, played by Nordic actress Noomi Rapace, is the gravitational center of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a Swedish-language mystery thriller based on the first novel of Steig Larsson’s bestselling Millenium trilogy. The film chronicles Lisbeth’s partnership with Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), a disgraced journalist about to be imprisoned for libel. A wealthy, elderly businessman from a family with a history of violence and Nazi ties seeks out Blomkvist, asking him to investigate the 40-year-old unsolved murder of his teenaged niece, Harriet Vanger. Salander, an unconventional-looking hacker, hops on board after discovering files on Blomkvist’s computer and making the case’s first major breakthrough in decades. As the two delve deeper into the mystery (and an unlikely romance) and closer to the culprit—whom Harriet’s uncle insists must be a member of the large, dysfunctional Vanger clan—they find their own lives in immediate danger.
Despite its exorbitant length and the potentially snooze-worthy nature of a decades-old crime, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo grips its audience from the beginning and doesn’t loosen for an instant. The numerous graphic scenes of rape and torture make the film difficult to watch at times, but also make it viscerally engaging. As the murder unravels with unexpected, disturbing twists, Salander’s own dark past rears its head, intertwined with the murder of Harriet Vanger. Although complex and thought-provoking, both mysteries are easy to follow and leave the viewer craving the puzzle’s next piece rather than trying to figure out the last one.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo owes much of its success to Rapace’s flawless performance in the titular role. The motorcycle-riding, chain-smoking, sometimes violent Salander is a complicated and nuanced character, and Rapace enlivens her in a way that draws the audience, like the much-older Blomkvist, inescapably towards her. As her past (and present) experiences prompt Salander to avoid human attachment, Rapace commands a love from the viewer despite her character’s intimidating appearance.
After the suspenseful path toward the killer converges into a thrilling climax and then settles into a less heart-attack-inducing resolution, the audience feels neither bored nor cheated out of an exciting ending. Rather, they are still wholeheartedly involved with the characters, begging to follow Salander’s cloud of cigarette smoke into the next chapter of her life. Smart move by the studio—we’ll all be buying tickets to the rest of the trilogy.
