Film/Television Review: The Millennium Trilogy (2009 - 2010)
In 2010, Let Me In, the Hollywood remake of the acclaimed Swedish horror Let the Right One In, debuted at the American box office, where it was met with largely positive reviews but also a commercial flop. Some commentators attempted to explain this by pointing out that die-hard fans of the original – precisely the segment of the audience that was most counted upon – had dismissed the American version in advance as "unnecessary", "watered down" and "pointless".
In any case, the failure of Let Me In was ill omen for yet another Hollywood version of a cult Swedish original – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, namely David Fincher's ambitious 2011 high-budget adaptation of the first novel in Stieg Larsson's popular Millennium trilogy. Many expected that this production could meet the same fate. Larsson's popularity has reached even Hollywood, and his first novel had the honour of being adapted into a big-budget film directed by Fincher. But before that, the first screen adaptation of Larsson happened in his native Sweden two years earlier, in the form of three feature films starring Noomi Rapace as the novels' heroine Lisbeth Salander. Those films, later re-edited into a six-part television miniseries, were very successful among audiences and critics alike and played an important part in turning Rapace into an international film star.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev
Written by: Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg
The first film, based on the first novel in the trilogy – originally titled Men Who Hate Women – introduces the audience to the two main protagonists. The nominal protagonist is a kind of alter ego of the late author: Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), a middle-aged publisher and investigative reporter who has just lost a libel case brought against him by a powerful and corrupt financier. While awaiting prison, he is engaged by the elderly industrialist Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) to try to solve a decades-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of his favourite niece, whom he suspects was murdered by the sociopathic and dysfunctional members of his own family.
In the investigation, which will unearth dark secrets stretching back to the Second World War, Blomkvist receives crucial assistance from Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), a young bisexual woman who, despite an unusual physical appearance defined by numerous piercings and tattoos, has a successful career as a hacker and surveillance expert. The first film is the most self-contained in terms of content, and Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, with a relatively modest budget of 13 million dollars, produced a work that looks as glamorous and well-produced as the best Hollywood thriller. Another great asset of the film is the cast, especially Rapace, who makes her grotesque character quite believable and has good chemistry with Nyqvist in their scenes together.
Rating: 8/10
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Directed by: Daniel Alfredson
Written by: Ulf Rydberg
The second film takes place a year later. Salander returns to Sweden from abroad only to become personally involved in a complicated murder case. Blomkvist's colleague, who had been trying to expose a sex trafficking ring, is killed, and the evidence points to Salander's legal guardian, who is also killed. Salander becomes the prime suspect, and Blomkvist decides to help her prove her innocence while she is being pursued by a determined and grotesquely strong killer connected to Salander's biological father. She must also confront the unspeakable traumas and villains of her own past.
The change of screenwriter and director was a turn for the worse. Daniel Alfredson – brother of Tomas Alfredson, known for Let the Right One In – stepped behind the camera, and the result feels more "pulp-like". The plot is very complex and hardly comprehensible to the audience, at times straying into the territory between pulp fiction and soap opera. The ending, made for an inevitable sequel, is especially dissatisfying.
Rating: 6/10
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
Directed by: Daniel Alfredson
Written by: Ulf Rydberg, Jonas Frykberg
The conclusion of the trilogy has Lisbeth Salander fighting for her freedom after being charged with the murders and placed in a psychiatric institution. Behind these efforts are rogue elements within the Swedish Security Service, who had helped Salander's father defect from the Soviet Union and had covered up his family abuse and other crimes. Salander has to rely on Blomkvist and his sister Annika, a defence lawyer, to help her expose the real culprits and win her freedom.
The final film slightly improves the overall impression, because it brings a refreshing genre combination of spy/political thriller and courtroom drama. The ending might look a little bit forced and too "neat" for what was supposed to be a naturalistic crime drama, but as a conclusion to the series it serves its purpose. The trilogy as a whole, despite variations in quality, forms a fairly successful whole.
Rating: 7/10
The main reason for this success lies primarily in the highly unconventional female protagonist who, on the one hand, seems like a product of someone's flights of fancy, but on the other hand fits perfectly in this cynical age in which conventional crime protagonists have lost their erstwhile authority. Rapace plays this character exceptionally well, and it is genuinely difficult to imagine that Rooney Mara, chosen to reprise the role in Fincher's version, could manage to outshine her.
In addition, this trilogy draws on the tradition of Swedish crime fiction – now well familiar to fans of the genre – but also on the not-so-idyllic reality of the once-utopian Sweden that provides local crime writers with a rich source of inspiration. The trilogy as a whole still looks much superior to its Hollywood remake, for which it is understandable why it never passed the point of Larsson's first novel.
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