Posts tagged Lisbeth Salander
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Swedish Version Better
Jan 1st
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
“Swedish Version Better”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Hollywood version, is out only 1-1/2 years after the Swedish version was released in the U.S., and if you didn’t see that version, you might think that this newer one is pretty good.
Daniel Craig plays investigative journalist Mikael Blomqvist, and Rooney Mara has replaced Noomi Repace as Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo on her back, and the similarity of the actresses’ names can be confusing, just as the story can be for new audiences.
Spoiler Alert! If you have read the book on which both movies are based or if you saw the Swedish movie and managed to read the subtitles and watch the action at the same time, then you already know how this one ends, unless you have forgotten some of the convoluted details.
The movie cuts back and forth between Lisbeth and Mikael for the longest time before they ever get together to solve the crime that is the basis of the mystery, and once they do, Lisbeth says, “I like working with you,” to which Mikael replies, “I like working with you, too.”
This exchange is amusing, considering what happens just before they say that, but for the most part the movie is serious, grim, and graphic in its sex, violence, and nudity.
Mikael has been hired by a wealthy industrialist to figure out what happened to his niece, Harriet, who was 16 back in 1966 when she disappeared from the remote island on which the industrialist’s dysfunctional family all live.
Harriet’s disappearance was especially mysterious, because her body was never found, and an accident on the bridge to the island prevented anyone from getting on or off the island.
Meanwhile, Lisbeth has problems of her own in her personal life, she has a history of committing violence, and although she claims that she has taken care of herself since she was 10, she has a guardian from whom she gets her money to live on.
Lisbeth is an experienced researcher, an accomplished computer hacker, and her appearance is, shall we say, “extreme,” although I liked her appearance better in the Swedish version. Her dragon tattoo is better in the Swedish version, too.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Hollywood version, is just not as good as the Swedish version.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” Surprises All the Way to the End
Nov 4th
“Surprises All the Way to the End”
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST is the third Swedish film in the Millennium Trilogy that includes THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, it is just as good as the first one, and it leaves you wanting more.
We know that there will be more, because Hollywood is working on its own version of the first film, and there are rumors that the manuscript for a fourth novel was found on the computer belonging to Stieg Larsson, the Swedish author who died tragically at 50 before the novels were even published.
This film begins, naturally enough, where the second one ended, and Lisbeth Salander, the 27-year-old title character, lies in the hospital in pretty bad shape, having had a bullet removed from her brain.
Mikael Blomkvist is the investigative journalist who has been helping Lisbeth in the first two films, and his sister Annika is a lawyer who agrees to defend Lisbeth against the charges of three murders that the audience already knows she didn’t commit.
Lisbeth tells Annika, “I don’t need a lawyer.”
However, of course she does, and she also needs luck and help in her hospital room, because other people are trying to kill her.
Now, it might be confusing to try to understand who all the old people in the story are and to keep them straight after you have seen them, and it will definitely be confusing if you haven’t seen the first two films. So, the place to start is with the excellent first film, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.
You might also think that a movie that spends most of its time in a hospital and then later in a courtroom is not going to be very exciting, especially considering all the action in the first two films, but there is action aplenty in this one, as well.
It is also a kick to see Lisbeth get her punk look back when she walks into the courtroom. She is definitely her own woman, and there is already talk about an Academy Award in 2011 for the Swedish actress who plays her, Noomi Repace.
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST is as excellent as the first film, it contains surprises all the way to the end, and I want a fourth one.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Girl Who Played with Fire” Case of Sophomore Slump?
Jul 15th
“Case of Sophomore Slump?”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE is the second in a trilogy of films based on novels that have become a phenomenon in Sweden and Europe, and Hollywood is working on its own version of the films at this moment.
However, don’t wait for the Hollywood versions when you can enjoy the Swedish films and then compare and contrast later.
Also, see the first film in the trilogy, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, first, because the story of all three is chronological, and otherwise you might be unnecessarily confused by characters and events that are explained in the previous film.
This one begins with the anti-heroine and title character Lisbeth Salander entering a man’s apartment late at night while he is asleep and looking for the files that he has on her.
He is Nils Bjurman, and he is Lisbeth’s court-appointed guardian who has to submit a monthly report on how Lisbeth is doing. She awakens Bjurman, threatens him with his own gun, and tells him to send in only positive reports about her or else she will go public with a damaging DVD she has of the two of them together.
After Lisbeth leaves, however, Bjurman calls someone named Zala and tells Zala to kill Lisbeth and return the DVD to Bjurman.
Then two people who were just about to publish an investigative article about the sex trade in Sweden are found murdered, and Lisbeth is the prime suspect, but the police can’t find her.
Neither can Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth’s friend and collaborator from the first film, and as he tries to get in touch with her, he discovers more information about this mysterious woman, some of it quite disturbing.
There are plenty of characters, events, and locations to keep the audience guessing about what is going to happen next, but the ending has way too much unnecessary melodrama, especially since we all know that a third installment is coming in the story.
This one also leaves a lot of unanswered questions at the end, one of which is why do filmmakers put white subtitles over a white background, making them almost impossible to read?
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE is well worth seeing, but not as good as the first film, and I am hoping that it is just another case of sophomore slump.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
