It's not often that I do this anymore but I'm doing it right now. I've just watched a film version of the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo before even thinking of picking up & reading the series it's from in their original novelized form. This is even more odd because I've lately been resolved to read much more often than I'd done in the recent past. Nonetheless I felt like seeing what all the hype was about so I got copies of all three movies. I've watched the first film so far. I plan on watching the second and third films perhaps tomorrow night and the night after that. Then I'll write up my thoughts on each film right here in this post with note taken to mention when I'd watched the movie & wrote the thoughts down.
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Movie watched night of December 12th, 2010 thoughts written on the day of December 13th. 2010.
This movie was definitely intriguing right from the start. If I had to describe it according to other movies that I've seen already I'd say that it's an odd combination of David Fincher's Zodiac, Johnathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs, and Gore Verbinski's American remake of The Ring. Each of these movies kind of focus on deconstructing serial killers, victims of violent crime, and people investigating and reporting on serious crimes involving life and death. Deconstruction of what creates a serial killer and what creates a victim of violent crime is heavily analyzed through the storyline of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Mikael Blomkvist is a disgraced journalist that is hired by a man named Henrik Vanger to uncover the identity of the suspected killer of his beloved niece Harriet, who's been missing for 40 years. Henrik suspects that someone within the family is responsible for her death. Mikael begins to investigate Harriet while Mikael himself is being investigated by a young female computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. She is slowly revealed to have had a history of being violently assaulted and taken advantage of by men for nearly all of her 24 years of age. She continues to be taken advantage of because she's alleged to be legally mentally unstable, thus she's under conservatorship by the state. She uses her hacker skills to obtain "research" for a security firm specializing in retrieving evidence for criminal cases and journalist exposes. Lisbeth begins to figure out clues to the disappearance of Harriet Vanger via hacking into Mikael's laptop computer. She brazenly e-mails Mikael answers to numeric clues left by Harriet possibly regarding the identity of her killer. Mikael tracks Lisbeth's e-mail and offers for them to team up to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Harriet. Mikael and Lisbeth slowly uncover the identity of the murderer or murderers through reconstructing the day before Harriet disappears and the identities and causes of death of other victims of the suspected murderer or murderers within the Vanger family.
Deconstruction is created through mirroring the clues regarding the violent deaths of these various women with the life of Lisbeth Salander. Salander's violent past as a victim that's willing to exact revenge upon others that have harmed her makes her a true anti-hero. Lisbeth is justified with being very angry and even violent against people that have harmed her. However, the violent acts that have been committed against her are extremely violent. She is suggested to have come from a family of domestic abuse. She is revealed to have harmed her father to protect her mother. This puts her into mental health facilities well into her adult years. When we meet her she's being blackmailed into performing sexual acts and being raped by the man administering her conservatorship so that she can gain access to her money. She commits a violent sexual act against him in revenge of his previous deeds against her. It's possible that she might have committed violent acts towards her previous conservator who's revealed to have recently passed away at the beginning of the film. These 2-3 violent acts committed by Lisbeth are recalled once the identity of the serial killer within the Vanger family is revealed. She chooses his fate according to her conflict ridden personal history. She also takes into account everything that she's learned about this killer through assisting Mikael in uncovering his/her identity. Lisbeth's tendency to exact violent revenge on people who commit violence against women is admirable and reprehensible at the same time. Mikael's journey through uncovering the identity of the killer within the Vanger family is one of personal and professional redemption. He's lost everything because of accusing some very powerful people of serious crimes in his news magazine Millenium. Uncovering the identity of the Vanger killer is a case that redeems him as a man and a journalist. The relationship that he develops with Lisbeth happens because they are both maligned outsiders of society. Their partnership can be characterized as similar to that of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. The difference is that I'd say that Mikael, the initial character we're introduced to is the Watson of this pairing. The assistant Lisbeth is a more accomplished sleuth thus the Sherlock of the pairing. Nonetheless, Mikael, the Watson of the pairing, is definitely in charge. They don't attempt to reign each others excesses in. They revel in their odd pairing and develop a genuine friendship and love for each other through the movie. It's not a relationship of open affection. They strive to maintain their rationality rather than to give in to irrational, overly emotional behavior. It's questionable whether they succeed in creating a partnership based on rationality because they are heavily invested in each other by the end of the film regardless of whether they want to admit it to each other. The investigation causes both of them to reevaluate their actions and judgments hopefully for the better. I can't recommend this film enough. Especially if you're interested in horror or crime procedural films. I'm sure go on further with analyzing this film but I'll leave it at this
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Movie watched on December 13, 2010. Thoughts written also on the night of December 13, 2010 and December 15, 2010
My gut reaction to this second installment is that it's much more simplistic compared to the layers and depth involved in the conflicts of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This makes the second film a bit of a letdown especially when watched shortly after seeing the stellar first film. The comparisons to Zodiac and The Ring still stand in regards to the investigative aspects of the film involving Mikael, Lisabeth, and their associates. A key difference between Dragon Tattoo and Played With Fire is that Mikael and Lisabeth are physically separated for nearly the entire running time of the film. Yes, that's likely how the original sequel novel played out. However, it's a shame that the chemistry established between the 2 leads in Dragon Tattoo is non existent in this film because the storyline dictates that they're not in the same place for this installment of the Millennium Trilogy. If I'd have to generalize the storyline of this second film I'd say that it's like KILL BILL except with investigative aspects and a bluntly serious storytelling sensibility rather than the over the top action and satirical tone characteristic of Quentin Tarantino. In this film, Mikael has hired a new staff writer for Millennium news magazine that is writing about people involved in International Human Trafficking in the Sex Trade of teenaged girls and young women. His fiance is also about to complete a PhD on the subject of Human Trafficking as well. There are several men involved that are in positions of power and influence, under legal and illegal pretense, in Sweden. It has been a year since the events of Dragon Tattoo and Mikael hasn't had much if any contact with Lisbeth. Mikael's new hire asks him to come to his apartment to receive some new evidence further supporting the claims that he (the new hire) is writing about for Millennium. Mikael arrives and the new hire and his fiance have been murdered and Lisbeth's the main suspect. Mikael continues to pursue leads on the figures involved in the piece on human trafficking that the new hire was working on before his demise. Mikael hopes that Lisbeth is still tapped into his work laptop because he knows that she'd be definitely interested in anything serious concerning the welfare of women. Lisbeth uses the leads found by Mikael, as well as those found on her own to determine the identities of the people responsible for her becoming a woman wanted on a murder charge. It is slowly revealed that it isn't random that the people involved in the human trafficking ring that caused Lisbeth to become a fugitive targeted her to take the blame for the murder of the millennium writer and his fiance.
Much of this second film is focused on revealing the origin of Lisbeth Salander. We meet her previous conservator in this film. He is someone that the audience was led to believe to have suffered a fatal heart attack or stroke in the first film. He is interviewed by Mikael, who reveals that all he wants to do is help clear Lisbeth's name. The original conservator reveals the details of Lisbeth's parentage and thus how she's involved with the central point of conflict in this second film. Lisbeth, the antihero, does commit some reprehensible acts once again in the name of finding the people responsible for framing her for murder. However, there are interrogations throughout the film that made me feel like Lisbeth is much more outright villainous in this film compared to the first film. In the first film every act of violence she commits could be explained by vengeance or punishing someone that's done acts similar to the acts of violence that had been done to her in the past. There's a bloodthirstiness to Lisbeth in this film that makes her come across as just as evil as the criminals and murderers she's already suffered at the hands of. She basically goes on a cold blooded killing spree in the name of defending the women that had been exploited by this human trafficking ring like a female version of Marvel comics' The Punisher. She only regains a slight bit of possible audience sympathy when the exact nature of her familial connection to some of these criminals is made clear. I'd like to assume that it's intentional that the director and screenwriter(s) and the original author of the novels likely wanted viewers & readers to become less sympathetic to Lisbeth. It's an interesting contrast in the depiction of the character of Lisbeth compared to the first installment. Mikael's faith in the innocence of Lisbeth for not having committed the murders of the Millennium writer and fiance is justified. However, Mikael seems like he believes that Lisbeth is a fully innocent woman that's had a history of being victimized. Other supporting characters continually question why Mikael has such faith in Lisbeth's innocence and it's irrational. The writing seems to dictate that this is intentional as well. The juxtaposition of scenes of Mikael investigating and defending Lisbeth with scenes of her torturing or murdering men involved in the Human Trafficking ring without concern or thought over how deeply each man is involved makes her come across more as a serial killer rather than the antihero that she is. Mikael is also less sympathetic because the further details he learns about Lisbeth merely reinforce his existing belief that she's simply a misunderstood outsider that's had lots of violence committed against her. Mikael can't fathom the possibility of Lisbeth being just as bad as the people that have hurt her. This is a serious lapse of judgment by a supposedly quite accomplished, albeit controversial journalist. Mikael is more or less the main protagonist of this film. The first film was fairly evenly split between focus on him and Lisabeth. I admire the fact that the script tries really hard to defamiliarize the audience with Lisbeth. It adds a tinge of further depth to Lisbeth in this sequel but overall she's written as much more villainous in this sequel compared to the original. I think the defamiliarization of Lisbeth in characterization in her scenes is supposed to act as contrast to the increased familiarization with Lisbeth that Mikael is experiencing. However, Mikael's increased familiarization with Lisbeth is deeply flawed. It's mainly because he overly trusts the materials that he receives through investigating her whereabouts. He trusts too much. Overall, I'm left with the impression that the main point of this installment is to bring to light the character flaws of the 2 main characters rather than create a compelling self contained mystery like the original film. The film very much so feels like it's supposed to be a bridge to something more dramatically eventful in the final installment. The increased disclosure of the events of Lisbeth's past is appreciated but the over reliance on character development scenes causes this film to drag slowly for much of the 2 hour running time. I enjoyed seeing the characters of Mikael and Lisbeth again but the second film is clearly inferior to the first film in the series.
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Movie watched on the night of December 14,2010 - December 15, 2010. Thoughts written on December 15, 2010.
This film is a direct continuation of The Girl Who Played With Fire. At the end of Fire, Lisbeth is in dire medical condition following a violent conflict with some dangerous, estranged relatives. Her main target at the end of Fire survives this violent reunion as well. He is a dangerous former Soviet that fled to Sweden. However, he's involved in a large conspiracy with a discrete faction of men that have been negatively influencing the events of Lisbeth's life. They have been doing this because she is related to this dangerous Soviet in a very specific way that I'd rather not spoil for any potential viewers of these films. This Soviet had a fellow family member act as his bodyguard throughout Fire. He pursues Lisabeth to exact revenge against her for actions she's done against the Soviet. However, Lisabeth is under police supervision at the hospital because she attempted to kill the Soviet (who is believed to be a legitimate Swede by the authorities). Lisbeth goes on trial for her violent actions against the Soviet. Mikael puts together a defense team for Lisbeth. He also supplies evidence from Lisbeth's files and additional research done by himself and the Millennium staff. Everything about the conspiracy to protect the Soviet, Lisbeth's specific relationship to him, and everything about her years of abuse by people in the public safety and justice system associated with the conspiracy involving this mysterious faction of men is brought to light.
This third and final film in the series is steeped in the sub-genres of political thriller and courtroom procedural. That's not to say that there aren't events that happen outside of private rooms, jails, and courtrooms. It's that everything builds towards Lisbeth's trial because the main narrative of this film is to prove her innocence through the exposure of the clandestine group dubbed "The Section" that has been manipulating the nature of Lisbeth's life since her conception. I still take issue with the fact that Mikael defends Lisbeth's intentions without fully knowing in detail all of the incredibly cruel acts she has perpetrated against various people who have harmed her or other women. The fact that many of these men have been working against her through "The Section" alleviates this fault of Mikael's a bit. However, Mikael is absolutely driven to assemble Lisbeth's defense that he becomes willing to put the lives of the rest of the staff of Millennium at risk. It shows that he is reckless when pursuing a story exposing the excesses of law and the government. There is even a conversation where he claims that he despises law and the government. Mikael while pursuing a story is like an addict pursuing another fix. He is absolutely irrational in that he believes that what he is doing is absolutely the right course of action. An act of true justice. Mikael enlists his sister, a defense lawyer to take on Lisbeth as a client. He also takes lightly threatening e-mails sent to his publisher/sometimes mistress. He does nothing so she's forced to hire a personal security detail. The other staffers at Millennium become outraged that Mikael would put the story ahead of the lives of his colleagues. Obviously, Mikael sticking to his guns works out in the end but the structure of the storytelling is was strong enough to make me consider what if he ends up wrong in the end. Mikael being wrong could potentially mean the early deaths of his colleagues. Mikael is drunk with self righteousness. The character is captivating and appalling at the same time in this film.
Lisbeth is thankfully closer to her characterization in Dragon Tattoo albeit neutered from influencing events in the film more directly because of being hospitalized, then imprisoned while waiting to stand trial for the attempted murder of the Soviet. She is abrasive yet oddly charming once again. The only problem that I have with Lisbeth has more to do with other characters that come to her aid. Lisbeth easily charms Mikael in Dragon Tattoo therefore making him more amenable to her in Played With Fire thus somewhat rationalizing his drive to defend her here in Kicked The Hornet's Nest. The fact that it's such clear manipulation makes Mikael an incredibly blinded journalist at certain points of the films. Obviously this opinion could change in different viewers depending on how they choose to interpret the interactions and communications between Lisbeth and Mikael. A more clear example of how Lisbeth manipulates men is the Doctor that treats her in the hospital in Kicked The Hornet's Nest. This doctor almost instantly comes to the conclusion that Lisbeth is a lot less harmful than the "Section" compromised authorities investigating her believe. Regularly throughout the trilogy opponents of Lisbeth make note that while she's small in stature, she's an adept fighter with knowledge of how to use several objects as weapons. She is also said to be mentally unstable by those conspiring against her. Surely a medical doctor would be aware that someone who is mentally unstable could pretend to appear mellow, harmless, or benign. He even assists Mikael by giving Lisbeth a smart phone to type out her version of the various events shown throughout the movies. This memoir is presented as evidence at her trial. The doctor is depicted as a fairly likable guy too. It bothers me that he never critically thinks out the situation involving Lisbeth. I like that he doesn't allow himself to be bullied by any of the psychiatric professionals that are secretly in "The Section" but it seems like he helps Lisbeth out because she's slight in frame (therefore physically harmless) and that she seems nice. He never even thinks that he barely knows this woman brought in by the police. A WOMAN BROUGHT IN BY THE POLICE. You would think that a Doctor tending to someone who's a potential murderer would be somewhat professionally withdrawn from her. Lisbeth basically is given the Hannibal Lecter treatment in this film. She's physically incapacitated or jailed but she helps Mikael's pursuit of exposing "The Section" through using the smart phone slipped to her by Mikael via the Doctor. I like that they really focus on Lisbeth's extreme reluctance to verbally recount her version of events during interrogations and courtroom cross examinations. She puts on the show of being an introvert when convenient. It's truthful to her character from the very first installment. Lisbeth argues that the majority of the violent acts that she has committed were in self defense. I enjoy how the audience knows better than the other characters in regards to the nature of Lisbeth's violence. Lisbeth violently interrogates people when it is to her advantage. If she ends up being held accountable for these violent interrogations she simply argues self defense. In this film she can be understood to be somewhat a vigilante/anti-hero and as a possible serial killer. She is kind of morally ambiguous with the only exception being that she is absolutely against any kind of physical harm being done to a woman. There is a whole section in the film where Lisbeth doesn't seem to care about whether she lives or dies while incarcerated. Even after she is cleared of wrongdoing, she is incapable of expressing open gratitude to Mikael and his Lawyer sister that defended her in court. It's almost like she wants to be a blank slate whenever possible. She accepts that she is absolutely opposed to violence against women yet she is willing to be ambiguous in regards to other sociopolitical issues and the emotional connection called love. I think that this constant striving for moral ambiguity is what's at the core of the character Lisbeth Salander. Noomi Rapace did an incredible job portraying this incredibly conflicted female character. I think I can only call her an anti-hero at best. She's not a heroine. She's not willing to openly express a belief in basic human goodness despite it being expressed towards her several times in the films. Michael Nyqvist also does an incredible job at portraying Mikael Blomqvist, a journalist all too willing to succumb to professional and personal excess if it's in the name of obtaining true justice against the powerful entities of private business, law, and government.
The first film in the series is my clear personal favorite. It has a compelling self contained mystery that wraps up entirely within the running time of the film. The 2 sequels are compelling because they're willing to go even deeper into what makes the characters tick. I may have been too forgiving in writing about the faults of the second and third films regarding character motivations and plot points. I firmly believe that many of the possible character inconsistencies were because they wanted to establish that Lisbeth has a strong, light-touched ability to create connections with other people despite the fact that she's an anti-social person that's probably best described as a broken person because of all the strife and anguish she's experienced. Part of me wishes that the possibility of Sherlock & Watson type mystery stories featuring Lisbeth & Mikael could still happen. The second and third movies are heavily weighted towards uncovering governmental and legal conspiracy. That kind of makes the mystery a bit impersonal despite the conspirators all having influence on Lisbeth's life. The conspiracy in the second and third films felt like it could exist without Lisbeth and Mikael. The mystery/family conspiracy in the first film was much smaller in scope. Therefore it was more plausible in my mind. Mikael and Lisbeth ended up learning about different aspects of their own personalities and personal histories because of the nature of the Harriet case. There is a lot of forced over complication of Lisbeth's life and history in the second and third films. Mikael thankfully is an assured person in the second and third films. Albeit, he does let personal connection taint the objectiveness of his journalistic investigations. It's more compelling with Mikael because it's a character flaw that shadows the mystery unfolding. Lisbeth is given much more back story and moral ambiguity yet I'm not sure she learned anything from her ordeal in the second and third movies. She becomes an expressionless female version of Marvel's The Punisher or a version of The Bride from Kill Bill that's emotionless and devoid of humor. She appears to be coldly angry because of all the abuse she had experienced in her life. However I understand her. However anyone else understands her, Lisbeth Salander is a brilliant creation. Mikael ensures that there is humanity in a series that's compellingly dark and twisted because it strives to present violence tinged with ambiguity. I ultimately did enjoy much of all three films. Dragon Tattoo is merely my favorite because it feels the most well realized.
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