The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009 film)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor) is a 2009 Swedish-Danish crime thriller film with German co-production directed by Niels Arden Oplev from a screenplay by Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel and produced by Søren Stærmose, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, the first entry in his Millennium series. The film stars Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.

That same year, two sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, were released in September and November, respectively.

Plot
In 2002, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, co-owner of the magazine Millennium, loses a high-profile libel case against billionaire Hans-Erik Wennerström, resulting in a looming prison sentence. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant but troubled hacker, is commissioned to run a background check on Blomkvist.

Henrik Vanger, the elderly patriarch of the affluent Vanger family, hires Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who had vanished in 1966 during a family gathering. Henrik suspects foul play by his family, many of whom had Nazi connections

Salander struggles under the control of her abusive guardian, Nils Bjurman. After enduring severe abuse, she gains the upper hand by blackmailing Bjurman, securing her financial independence and personal safety.

Blomkvist, living on the Vanger estate, discovers a list of names and numbers in Harriet's diary, linked to biblical verses. Salander, secretly accessing Blomkvist’s files, identifies the biblical references and joins Blomkvist, proposing they might relate to a series of unsolved murders connected to antisemitic motives within the Vanger family.

Their investigation leads them to suspect Martin, Harriet’s brother, who eventually captures Blomkvist. In Martin's custody, Blomkvist learns of the serial murders conducted by Martin and his late father. Salander arrives in time to rescue Blomkvist, and Martin dies in a subsequent car crash.

The duo discover that Harriet is alive in Australia, having escaped to avoid further abuse. Reunited with Henrik, she explains that she sent him annual pressed flowers as a signal that she was still alive.

The film closes as Blomkvist, aided by Salander, publishes an exposé on Wennerström, which revitalises his career and leads to Wennerström’s downfall. Salander, having secretly transferred Wennerström's funds, begins a new life under a new identity.

Cast

 * Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist
 * Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander
 * Lena Endre as Erika Berger
 * Sven-Bertil Taube as Henrik Vanger
 * Peter Haber as Martin Vanger
 * Peter Andersson as Nils Bjurman
 * Marika Lagercrantz as Cecilia Vanger
 * Ingvar Hirdwall as Dirch Frode
 * Björn Granath as Gustav Morell
 * Ewa Fröling as Harriet Vanger
 * Michalis Koutsogiannakis as Dragan Armansky
 * Annika Hallin as Annika Giannini
 * Tomas Köhler as "Plague"
 * Gunnel Lindblom as Isabella Vanger
 * Gösta Bredefeldt as Harald Vanger
 * Stefan Sauk as Hans-Erik Wennerström
 * Jacob Ericksson as Christer Malm
 * Julia Sporre as young Harriet Vanger
 * Tehilla Blad as young Lisbeth Salander
 * Sofia Ledarp as Malin Eriksson
 * David Dencik as Janne Dahlman
 * Reuben Sallmander as Enrico Giannini
 * Alexandra Hummingson as an unnamed journalist

Critical response
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was well received by critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a normalised score of 85% based on 192 reviews, with an average score of 7.3/10. The critical consensus is: "Its graphic violence and sprawling length will prove too much for some viewers to take, but Noomi Rapace's gripping performance makes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo an unforgettable viewing experience." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 76% based on reviews from 36 critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four, noting that "[the film] is a compelling thriller to begin with, but it adds the rare quality of having a heroine more fascinating than the story".

Box office
The film grossed more than $10 million in the US and Canada in a limited release of 202 theatres. The total gross worldwide is $104,617,430.

TV miniseries
French premium pay television channel Canal+ aired extended versions of the three films as a miniseries between March and June 2010, before the theatrical release of the second and third films, consisting of six parts of 90 minutes each. The first part attracted 1.2 million viewers, the largest audience of a foreign series at Canal+ that year. The series aired on US pay-for-view cable networks in the weeks leading up to the release of David Fincher's 2011 film adaptation of the novel.

A home video set of all six parts of the miniseries was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Music Box Home Entertainment on 6 December 2011.