'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' complex and atmospheric

Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Cast: Peter Haber, Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace

Cert: 18

Nobody does dysfunction quite like the Swedish cinema and with this complex and atmospheric thriller, based on the first of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, we get an island full of dysfunctional people and a 40-year-old mystery.

While the film satisfies there are several discordant notes where the plot doesn’t quite work and too many inconsistent devices throw the narrative off centre, but largely it is the acting that sustains interest.

The story involves a disgraced journalist Blomkvist (Nyqvist), awaiting a jail term, who is employed by wealthy industrialist Martin Vanger (Haber) to look into the disappearance of his niece 40 years previously.

The journo stays on the island from which the niece vanished, along with the rest of the vastly troubled Vanger family, and is aided in his task by Lisbeth (Rapace), the tattooed hacker who keeps providing vital clues.

The Vangers have, of course, a vast array of dark secrets, and any one of them could have been involved in the niece’s disappearance.

Complex and atmospheric, and a film that only the Swedes could have made.

Star Rating: 4/5