The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - What An Attitude!

(2009) ★★★☆☆

'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' is the first part of Swedish author Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. The other two are 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' and 'The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest'. Though the English title may sound a bit more exciting, the original Swedish title simply means 'Men Who Hate Women". Right, it's a film about how those women, prostitutes to be exact, get brutally tortured and murdered, and why. There's something to do with racism, Nazism, commercial crime and government conspiracy. It however all begins with a missing person case.

A journalist named Mikael Blomkvist is recruited by an aged tycoon, Henrik Vanger, to look into his niece's disappearance about 40 years ago. Henrik Vanger's convinced that she's killed by one of the family members. As Mikael gets deeper and deeper, he discovers something pretty ugly and disgusting. At the meanwhile, a genius computer hacker named Lisbeth is also interested in what Mikael is digging. Lisbeth looks like a rebel, a loser, a punk or whatever you'd like to label a person who's got piercings and tattoos on his body. Simply judging by her cover, she doesn't have a happy family, or a happy childhood. That's why she looks like a goth rocker who tends to believe in the dark side of life. The unlikely duo finally team up in an attempt to solve the case that reveals the violent nature of human beings.

What disturbs me the most is not those R-rated scenes of violence but what those sickos think of violence. What I mean sickos here is someone who would enjoy watching you suffer and die. They'd think that you're but a piece of trash. That they're superior than you. Nazism is in fact just an I'm-better-than-you attitude. So if you think you're somewhat special, you're a problem.

By the way, the Hollywood version of the film will be directed by David Fincher. His previous masterpieces include Se7en, Fight Club, The Game, Zodiac. So... I don't think he'd let us down anyway. Finger crossed for him!