IMDB Plot Synopsis: A journalist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing -- or dead -- for forty years by a young female hacker.
- I have not read the book. I didn’t know anything about this movie other than that the book it’s based on is apparently a world-wide phenomenon. I am also firmly of the belief that movie adaptations need to be able to adequately tell their story on their own in their own medium and that “Read the book, then it will make sense” is not an excuse for when something seems amiss. I’m just putting that out there.
- The Swedish title is apparently Men Who Hate Women which, in my mind, is a far more accurate descriptor than the English translation since the English version seems to imply that this movie is about Lisbeth, when really she plays second fiddle to Mikael for most of the movie. You know how much I love it when title characters get to be supporting cast in their own films! This is not to say that Lisbeth does not kick ass — she does, and then some. She both a physical and mental force, and practically ends up solving Mikael’s mystery for him… and yet I kept feeling like everything came back to Mikael’s various trials and tribulations.
- So, the violence. Oh god, the violence. Lisbeth’s first six scenes are as follows:
- Presenting her research findings on Mikael’s court case to her boss.
- Visiting her social worker who makes inappropriate and sexually suggestive comments to her.
- Getting beaten up in the subway by a gang of louts. (LOUTS!)
- Visiting a fellow hacker to see if her busted laptop can be fixed.
- Being orally raped by her social worker when she asks him for some money for a new computer.
- Being vaginally/anally raped (wasn’t clear which, and it’s not really important) by her social worker.
What I’m not really understanding is how any of the violence inflicted on her as an adult does anything to flesh out her character. It’s not like “Wow, she was raped by her social worker, now she has a prickly demeanour!” None of that violence is really anything but more crap she has to deal with. I suppose it could be argued that it ends up empowering Lisbeth since she fights back and doesn’t allow herself to be a victim™ — sodomizing the social worker with a dildo is one of the more unique ways I’ve seen this happen — but I feel like there are probably less exploitive ways of showing that kind of character development.
It doesn’t really help me understand her motivation to help Mikael, either. The only thing I can guess is that the guy Mikael was accusing of shady business practices was Lisbeth’s abusive and absent father, but that’s just a guess and is certainly not stated in any way for certain in the film (since it much more heavily implies that the guy she burned alive was her father).
* Although I struggle with what message that sends for abused women who are unable to do the same. - I would comment on all the pictures of decapitated, dismembered, and otherwise mutilated female bodies we got to see, but I’m sure this topic has been covered at length in any kind basic “women in media” studies course.
- I hope Lisbeth has the same tattoo artist as Francis Dolarhyde.
- It’s not okay to have an industrial murder kitchen in your basement. It’s just not.
- The fact that all the victims were Jewish was sort of self-evident the second that they were like “By the by, all these guys were Swedish Nazis, which is definitely an underrepresented sub-category of Nazi on film, now that we think about it.” I actually assumed that the numbers written beside each girl’s name were their tattoo numbers that Harriet had somehow got a hold of, but obviously that was wrong. Still, I was right over all. (It’s important that I’m right!)
- The wifi signals in rural Sweden are apparently exceptionally strong.
- I was also happy to encounter a couple of Ikea product names peppered throughout the film. They referenced the town of Karlstad and in the credits, one of the characters had the last name Malm.
- You know, rape aside, the rest of the movie was actually pretty suspenseful and did not drag at all despite being so long. Small miracles! And despite my anger towards the above things, I did ultimately like this movie. I just wish it didn’t have so much goddamned unnecessary rape. I hope the American remake deals with that part better because if the rumours are true about Daniel Craig starring in it, I’m going to have to see it.
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Yes to all of that. I thought I was the only one who was all “um, we really needed to see all of that? really?!”
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I’ve only read one review thus far (on a feminist movie blog) and was surprised to see the rape (etc.) described as being not gratuitous and crucial to the plot.
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@Elizabeth, Isn’t it the exact opposite? Like, there was no value to any of her rape moments, especially considering it’s really not much of a backstory and she becomes a glorified assistant for the rest of the movie?
I hated the SHIT out of this.
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Yep, that’s what I thought too.
Would you send me the link to that one, if you get a chance?
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http://womenandhollywood.com/2010/03/19/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/
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