TWEEN BROTHERS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

In 2005, the writer Stieg Larsson released in Sweden the novel Män som hatar kvinnor, the first part of a trilogy which the author entitled Milennium.  Shortly after its release, the book became a huge worldwide success, a success that Larsson, unfortunately, didn’t survived to see. He would probably get happy if he knew that not only one, but in fact two cinematographic versions were made based on the novel. He would probably get sad if he knew that both versions are strongly similar. But he would finally get happy if he saw that both movies ended up being really  great, just the kind of adaptations the novel deserved.

Stieg Larsson wrote his novel in Swedish  and it was published in 2005, a year after his death. Soon after, in 2009, when the book was still turning into an international best seller, a Swedish movie based on the novel was made, which carried the same title of it. The movie, directed by Niels Arden Oplev, was a great success mainly in its country. In 2011, when was already a international phenomenon, an American version was released. Directed by David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragoon Tatoo seems to have been inspired rather by the Swedish movie than by the book itself. The similarities shared by the two versions are huge in several aspects. The selection of what is in and what is out is practically the same: secondary characters’ are quite diminished and the Mikael’s sexual escapades are also strongly reduced, in order to keep the focus on the central storyline, that is, the investigation regarding Harriet Vanger’s disappearance. Also, both movies opted for developing Lisbeth’s storyline without cuts, keeping her rape scene. Such scene calls more attention in the American version once it made clear that Lisbeth is forced to have anal sex, an important detail that the Swedish version did not mention. On the other hand, the Swedish version scores pretty well in several other aspects. It has a better photography – more expressive, more real – and an atmosphere closer than that of the book; the cast is charismatic and the chemistry between Mikael (Michael Nyqvist) and Lisbeth (Noome Rapace) is intense. She, it is worth saying, manages to achieve the exact tone her character required, from her looks to her look, which expresses at the same time fear and anger. The American Lisbeth was in charge of Rooney Mara, that got a Oscar nomination for her role. Although she does in fact a very good job, she was not able to give Lisbeth a sense of reality. She seems more like someone who came out from Matrix and out of sudden appeared in Stockholm. And Daniel Craig, the American Mikael, do not disappoint, but he is really below Swedish Mikael. The same flaws fall on both versions. Both are not self-sufficient, tha is, they depend on a previous reading of the book to be fully understood. Besides that, they both eliminate the social tone present in the novel, which is not a mere policial story a la Agatha Christie, but also kind of a denouncement about the women’s situation in actual Sweeden and the rests left by Nazism in the country. Regarding the ending, the Swedish version chooses to respect Harriet’s and change Lisbeth’s final. The American version does just the opposite and changes Harriet’s ending – which causes a good surprise -  while keeping for Lisbeth the same destiny presented in the novel. In general, the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragoon Tatoo beats the American version – that does not present anything considerably new but the ending. In fact, it seems like the American version was produced due to a simply commercial matter, since a movie in English is much more easy to sell, mainly in the United States, than o movie in Swedish. But if you have to choose between both movies, instead, choose the novel. Stieg says thanks.

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