Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/]

The Gist:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish film based on a popular book series, and it has a lot going for it. It utilizes what works in the book very well: it's taut, it's character's are interesting, the plot is vaguely depraved in a way that is kind of fascinating. However, I will say that something is lost in translation. First of all, the film tries to tackle too much of the book and ends up with a two hour and twenty four minute running time. Now this wouldn't be so bad in and of itself if it wasn't for the slipshod way the film is editing in order to save time to fit everything in. The overall impact of the editing left me feeling like the moments in the film never had any time to breathe. This could have been solved by starting the film later in the action, letting the information about the trail come second hand through conversation. Also the the film's list of suspects just feels so much smaller than it did in the book, which is a serious problem and gives the genre piece a claustrophobic feeling. However, all the technical issues aside, the actors were perfect for their roles and the movie is still very entertaining.