I must say I was a bit disappointed with this film. It is a decent film, but I don't think it is worthy of the high ratings it has gotten. First the good points. The acting is fine, particularly Art Rooney's grand daughter Rooney Mara. I would say it was competently directed with good atmospherics. However, I view it as a fairly standard mad killer movie which substitutes new clichés for old. We have Daniel Craig taking on the Lois Lane role of the intrepid but ultimately powerless reporter rescued by the cynical conflicted hero or in this case heroine. There are the now familiar Nazi villains but since Nazis are getting pretty old we have a son of the old Nazi taking up where his father left off. And we know that the villain is really evil because he quotes from the biblical book (gasp!) of Leviticus. Of course there's steamy modern takes on sex, bisexuality, rape and bondage, and the sadistic sexually abusive alpha males, etc. This would be okay but the movie, in my opinion doesn't deliver the thrills of a great mystery/suspense film. Worth seeing, sure, but a great film-not.
Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
