Review - ANOTHER Feel Good Film for the Holiday Season ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo")

Based on the books by Swedish author Stieg Larrsen, this is MGM’s entry movie of which there is two more to follow: "The Girl Who Played With Fire," and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest"

Directed by David Fincher (“SE7EN”,) this movie essentially sets up the first of the three movies with two separate stories that converge in the middle. Story ‘A’ tells the tale of discredited Swedish investigative journalist Mikael (played by 007’s Daniel Craig) who has been hired by a reclusive retired steel magnate named Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to write a book about his family, but moreover, to dig deeper and discover the mysterious disappearance of his niece, who vanished 40 years ago from his estate. Chain-smoking and taking notes, Mikael delves into the Vanger family biz and finds out more than he bargains for.

While all this is going on, the movie flip-flops back and fourth to story ‘B’ about a 23 year-old chain-smoking Goth tattooed girl with a penchant for violence, wicked computer hacking skills, and anti-social behavior named Lisbeth (Rooney Mara.) She has a photographic memory, anti-trust issues and, whatever you do, do NOT cross her! Her social worker does and lives to regret it in one of the movie's more graphic and disturbing scenes. Soon Mikael and Lizbeth join forces to solve the initial disappearance but that leads to an unsolved serial killer case instead. Clocking in at over two and half hours, the movie really takes its time in delivering the complete story, which depending on your point of view, is either its greatest strength or its greatest weakness. Shot on location in bleak and cold Sweden, it’s a chilling (no pun intended) and slow moving character study.