Magine if international pop culture phenomenon “The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, for example, have adapted to adhere to different cultural expectations and tastes. It is difficult to do this with a book, where almost all of the transition involves the selection of words in translation leads will remain largely the same as the source material. A version of the film, however, is an opportunity much more malleable.
The former journalist and author Stage Larsson, who died in 2004, his future best-sellers have not yet been published, sparked an agile zeitgeist as Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist and titular “Girl Who” of the trilogy Millennium. This is the first film in the series, directed by Danish director Niels Arden Oplev.
Oplev vision is singularly-European actors and locations are all Europeans, and the dialogue is in Swedish. It was released in Sweden under the title original book Hatar Kvinnor Som Man, or men who hate women, the revised version here is English with subtitles in one published under the title American family-ized. However, this was a film made with the American public in mind.
When I say this is not a snob, far away: it is an observation, one that takes into account typical Hollywood productions with big stars, family structures, history, and age-appropriate, and reflected in the rules of classification system of the MPAA. There is probably little known here for the average American viewer, which makes this excellent adaptation even more exciting.
The book behind this movie is a slow-building mystery, chockful of dubious characters, confusing tense scenes and nuances. In the film, journalist Mikael Blomkvist is played by Michael Nyqvist, who teams up with Salander (Noomi Rapace) to investigate a cold case from 40 years of age, on the demise of the beloved niece of a dying man. Oplev captures all the main plot elements and twists in what is probably one of the truest adaptations novel and the movie I have ever seen.
Frankly, I doubt that any adaptation of Hollywood, David Fincher is rumored to be in the lead, but I’ll believe it when I see a trailer, will be able to make such a claim of authenticity, especially since this was also one of the most movies brutal I’ve ever seen. A cross between Silence of the Lambs, Hard Candy, Oplev pulls absolutely no shock here. I hope that the standards and expectations in Sweden are more acceptable, as they never could imagine some of the most violent and carnal scenes here did R-rated Hollywood. This does not mean it is free-which is what is in the book.
One scene in particular provides Salander as a woman who does not want to be messed with a long unbroken sequence which takes its revenge on a man who had raped her. It is a comprehensive and visceral scene that I squirmed in my seat a little. Again, not because it was not necessary, but because this is a powerful scene the way they look, if you are being faithful to the book and the character. In my mind I had always imagined as Salander have much in common with the Joker of Heath Ledger, just on the other side of the law; Rapace plays the character so much, but it gives enough pathos to make the character credible, Despite being extraordinary.
The film also handles well what to me was one of the main criticisms of the book, which is the character Blomkvist. Nyqvist-a kind of sullen and more welcoming Daniel Craig-subtly interpreted, flatters him well, as evidenced in a scene that is crawling photographs from an aging housewife. In this sense, their action is successful, the book seems Larsson Blomkvist glorification of himself, but the choice Nyqvist to emphasize this aspect of success makes Blomkvist affable detective as a more credible.
Time will tell if there is a Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be as faithful to the content and spirit of the book as the Swedish version is. Si-and-when it hits theaters version I will check it, but meanwhile, I am more than satisfied with the vision Oplev (if not a little queasy, but in a good way).
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