Having read Stieg Larsson's trilogy and seen all three television cum cinema screen adaptions in only the last eighteen months I had last moment doubts about seeing the US cinema interpretation of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. Surely I would be bored by the repetition? As it turns out I wasn't.
Even with its two and a half hours length there is no way that the film can incorporate the dense sub plots of the equivalent book. The Swedish television/cinema version similarly skirted over the detail. As a consequence a lot of the texture to the story is missing.
As is to be expected the US cinema version is slicker looking than the Swedish made for television counterpart. The US film has mostly non-Swedes in the cast all speaking in English language with vague Scandinavian accents although written material that appears on screen (signage, letters, etc but curiously not television screens) are in Swedish. This is an odd arrangement that is also practised by Kenneth Branagh's British television version of the the Swedish crime series 'Wallander'.
Rooney Mara does a terrific job as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig is workmanlike as the journalist Mikale Blomkvist as are the support cast. I loved the soundtrack; a mix of hi-tech and classical music.
SPOILER ALERT: Some Australian readers may be disappointed that an Australian connection in the book (and the Swedish television version) has been changed completely in this US adaptation.
The film is not quite as confronting as I was expecting from the advance publicity. A competent crime film but, like its Swedish counterpart, not a match for the book.
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