When I think of great mystery films I often think of The Usual Suspects, Rear Window, Psycho, Se7en.  Rarely do I think of a foriegn film in the tops of any category.  Perhaps it is my American ignorance or maybe I just haven't seen enough films produced over seas to really have an opinion on the matter, but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is one of the best films I've seen in a very long time in the mystery genre. It's a Swedish film adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson.  The story centers around a Swedish financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (played by the very talented Michael Nyqvist) who is convicted for slandering a high profile Swedish tycoon.  He is sentenced to three months in jail but his sentence doesn't start for one month.  It is in this time that he is hired by a wealthy retired businessman, Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), to investigate the 40 year old disappearance of Vanger's niece, Harriet.  Along the way Mikael enlists the help of a young female hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), to investigate what he believes to be the first of many unsolved murders of other young females in the area. It's your classic tale of "murder by association" until the very end.  While the film may be in subtitles throughout, you won't miss a beat due to the craft story telling told through film by director Niels Arden Opley.  The fact that he got such dynamic performances from largely unknown actors such as Nyqvist and Taube should tell you all you need to know about Opley's charge as the director.  The film's big star however is Noomi Rapace who pretty much takes all the heavy scenes in the movie and puts them on her back.  She's handles the "former mental patient/mad at the world" roll very well as evidenced by her emo persona and the piercings that cover nearly half of her face. The film's first half of the it's nearly  2 1/2 hour running time is spent delving into Lisbeth's character as we see her struggle with every day life (getting raped by your perole officer constitutes as a "struggle" in my book).  It's a fantastic look at a girl who can't be much older than 25 but takes matters into her own hands and reaches out to Mikael Blomkvist to help him solve the disappearance of Harriet Vanger.  While the film's ending seems to unravel into the "unrealistic" realm, it ties up loose ends rather nicely. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is just the first adapted film in the trilogy of books headed for the big screen, with The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest set to make their US debut sometime in the very near future. If you're looking for a staunch mystery-thriller, I'd suggest looking into The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo next time you're at your local Redbox or movie rental store.

The above author's byline must be attached to the work if being distributed.