Over the last few weeks, I watched the Swedish versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Excellent, captivating movies! I found the lack of qualities that are present in most American blockbusters refreshing, mainly the absence of bombastic music in favor of subdued mood music with downtempo stylings, and the complete lack of violence glorification.
I recommend both movies highly, but must warn you: both of them are damned dark. One of the major themes of the trilogy of books and movies is that "everyone has secrets." This is certainly true enough, but in this world "secrets" involve murder, violent rape, sex trafficking, theft, and other assorted evil and venial crimes. I'm not sure if this says something about Sweden, or the mindset of Stieg Larsson (the author, who was a newspaper reporter and thus probably saw his fair share of awful situations), but I was struck how few positive notes were struck throughout the movies. The few moments of positivity that shone through were hard fought and short living. Other then that caviat, these well constructed flicks are well worth your time.
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