Before the New Year, I was in Cebu for a short vacation and I was chatted up by this gorgeous Swede and one of the first things I said to him, which brought a smile to his face was - "Lisbeth Salander"! I'm sure, like thousands of Swedes like him who meet foreigners, those two words would most likely come out in any conversation. How her character - which looks very un-Swedish may come to represent their beautiful country - is actually the brain child of the now deceased author, Stieg Larsson, who wrote a trilogy about her - and this movie is the first of it, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
As I've recommended to all my friends, better watch the Swedish ORIGINAL version first before watching Hollywood's take on it. Just watching Noomi Rapace, who is now in the latest Sherlock Holmes movie, is the reward in itself. She just captures the essence of the role perfectly!
The funny thing is, I wasn't even going to watch this movie! But because I had dinner with some of my classmates in French class, and this movie became one of the dinner topics, I was so intrigued by what they were talking about that I decided to catch the actual movie which SURPRISE SURPRISE, was being shown here that exact same week - and with that exact same title! Apparently in America, they used another title.
Anyway, like everyone in the moviehouse that particular screening, we were jolted, shocked and saddened by what we see onscreen as Lisbeth Salander's character slowly unravels to us - and mind you - I had NO BACKGROUND - as to who she is or what she is like - so pardon me for being a bit shocked. Yes, the violence here is sickening and can make you throw up - and this is not the Sweden or Stockholm you see on the postcards - but the story will draw you in because everything here is a mystery that has to be unraveled! You have Swedish aristocrats who do vile things, a spiked and tattoed woman who really is intelligent and street smart - and a crusading journalist who falls for her. I love everything about this movie!
By the way, this is the second straight year that Sweden has produced my #1 favorite movie of the year. Last year, Let the Right One In was my #1 favorite movie - and that horror movie is so good - it just really blew me away. And yeah, it's not exactly the Sweden you'd think about in postcards or in the books.
I guess that's why I was so drawn to these two movies. They are pretty un-Swedish-like!
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