The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a LONG movie. This over two-and-a-half-hour film kept my attention for mostly the whole time. Mikael was introduced as a journalist and investigator who made a mistake on his most recent work and was facing the repercussions of it. I found the beginning of the move a bit confusing because it introduces Mikael as this reporter who is in financial trouble after a lost lawsuit, but then it doesn’t really go back to why he was in financial trouble until the very end of the movie. Instead, a wealthy Swedish man named Henrik gets in contact with Mikael because he wants Mikael to find out who killed his niece 40 years ago. I feel like the movie should have introduced Mikael as a very good investigator that was known for solving mysteries rather than this reporter who just made a huge mistake because why would a journalist be asked to solve a murder crime?
Mikael agrees to work on the case because he will be paid well for it and continues to work on the case until the end when he solves it. Before Henrik hired Mikael as the investigator for his niece’s crime, he had him investigated by the girl with the dragon tattoo whose name is Lisbeth. Mikael eventually gets hold of the report that Lisbeth did on him and hires her as an assistant to help him solve the crime because he was impressed with how much she found out about him, which I understand. What I don’t understand is why didn’t Henrik just hire Lisbeth from the start if he knew she was also a good reporter from her work on investigating Mikael? None the less, Mikael and Lisbeth are an oddball duo that work well together when their backgrounds and looks say otherwise. The movie really picks up once this couple starts working together, and it was a surprise when they started showing feelings for each other since on the outside they are so different.
The first hour of the movie when Mikael and Lisbeth are not working together, the movie pans back and forth between what is happening to each of them. Before Lisbeth works with Mikael, you don’t really know why they are showing so much about her. Lisbeth struggled throughout her life and you were able to see her hardships and how it has molded her. Once Mikael and Lisbeth work together, you finally understand why they gave so much background on her and it makes you appreciate the work they are doing to solve the murder of Henrik’s niece even more.
This movie is not predictable at all. At times it can be slow and a bit confusing, but overall, the bulk of the movie and worth the watch. My biggest concerns with this movie are the beginning and end. In the last 10 minutes of the movie, Lisbeth helps Mikael write a new story on the man he wrote about in the beginning and she steals all the money from the man by herself in a vault heist movie type of way. The movie could have just ended with them finding the killer the Henrik’s niece. Overall, I give this movie a 7.5/10.
Why won't my eye stop twitching 