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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009, Niels Arden Oplev), the extended edition

Posted on 22 June 2012 | Leave a comment

There’s enough story for three really good movies in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, maybe even four. The film opens with two of them, a good, old fashioned journalism movie, and then the very serious experiences of Noomi Rapace. There’s some crossover, but it’s all contrived.

Then the film blossoms and has two more plots, one feeding into the other. First of these new plots is practically a Raymond Chandler story of a detective–sorry, investigative reporter (played by Michael Nyqvist)–investigating an old crime. The second plot is a serial killer one.

The tone changes throughout, with Rapace’s harrowing experiences being extremely disquieting, while the journalism thread is light and airy and the old crime investigation somewhat light too. There’s Sven-Bertil Taube as this old man trying to discover the truth. It’s light. Taube’s lovable.

The threads fail to synthesize, maybe because protagonist Nyqvist doesn’t have a character. Rapace’s character’s backstory is hidden (to have dramatic payoff later), but it’s obvious she has one. Nyqvist gets a couple mentions, but there’s nothing to the character.

Director Oplev is okay. He doesn’t compose particularly well, but he never sells Rapace’s character short. Her storyline, no matter how silly, is always handled with great care. Even when it’s an obvious or predictable scene.

Dragon Tattoo is definitely captivating. The two mysteries are compelling–the newspaper story ends terribly, in an inept montage–and Rapace’s story is devastating.

But Dragon Tattoo‘s a melodrama. Its entire purpose is to be devastating.

CREDITS

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev; screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson; director of photography, Eric Kress; edited by Anne Østerud; music by Jacob Groth; production designer, Niels Sejer; produced by Søren Stærmose; released by Nordisk Film.

Starring Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomkvist), Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander), Lena Endre (Erika Berger), Sven-Bertil Taube (Henrik Vanger), Peter Haber (Martin Vanger), Peter Andersson (Nils Bjurman), Marika Lagercrantz (Cecilia Vanger), Ingvar Hirdwall (Dirch Frode), Björn Granath (Gustav Morell), Ewa Fröling (Harriet Vanger), Michalis Koutsogiannakis (Dragan Armanskij), Annika Hallin (Annika Giannini), Sofia Ledarp (Malin Eriksson), Gunnel Lindblom (Isabella Vanger), Gösta Bredefeldt (Harald Vanger), Stefan Sauk (Hans-Erik Wennerström), Jacob Ericksson (Christer Malm) and Tomas Köhler (‘Plague’).

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Posted in 2009, Crime, Denmark, Drama, English, Germany, Mystery, Nordisk Film, Norway, Sweden, Swedish, Thriller

Tagged Anne Østerud, Annika Hallin, Björn Granath, Eric Kress, Ewa Fröling, Gösta Bredefeldt, Gunnel Lindblom, Ingvar Hirdwall, Jacob Ericksson, Jacob Groth, Lena Endre, Marika Lagercrantz, Michael Nyqvist, Michalis Koutsogiannakis, Niels Arden Oplev, Niels Sejer, Nikolaj Arcel, Noomi Rapace, Peter Andersson, Peter Haber, Rasmus Heisterberg, Søren Stærmose, Sofia Ledarp, Stefan Sauk, Stieg Larsson, Sven-Bertil Taube, Tomas Köhler

Dead Snow (2009, Tommy Wirkola)

Posted on 25 July 2009 | Leave a comment

I’m getting sick of running zombies. Did 28 Days Later… start the running zombies or was it the Dawn of the Dead remake? Whichever, it’s gotten to the point where it’s just too boring. Kind of like how bullet-time, by the second Matrix film, was already rote.

Dead Snow is a concept zombie movie, with a concept someone must have already exploited–Nazi zombies. It’s poorly faced–it’s halfway through before they show up in force, which leaves the first half to be the setup. And the setup isn’t scary, which is awkward. Instead, it’s an introduction to the supposed-to-be-likable twentysomething cast, who are the stupidest medical students I’ve seen in a film in quite a while. Worse, they don’t get to be likable until the zombie attack. By then, the film’s in overdrive–the present action of the film is two and a half days, but the big zombie attack sequence takes up about thirty-five percent and it’s quasi real time. So there isn’t much time to get attached to the characters, especially after they’ve been building some resistance.

Traditionally, horror films compensate by casting someone famous in a role (I don’t know if there’s anyone famous in Dead Snow… not to me, anyway) or having gory scenes (the gory scenes are somewhat tame here).

It’s a lot of really funny ideas for scenes but no idea how to execute them. Wirkola’s direction is okay–he can point the camera–but it’s tone deaf.

CREDITS

Directed by Tommy Wirkola; written by Stig Frode Henriksen and Wirkola; director of photography, Matthew Weston; edited by Martin Stoltz; music by Christin Wibe; production designer, Liv Ask; produced by Tomas Evjen and Terje Stroemstad; released by Euforia Film.

Starring Charlotte Frogner (Hanna), Ørjan Gamst (Herzog), Stig Frode Henriksen (Roy), Vegar Hoel (Martin), Jeppe Laursen (Erlend), Evy Kasseth Røsten (Liv), Jenny Skavlan (Chris), Bjørn Sundquist (The Wanderer), Ane Dahl Torp (Sara) and Lasse Valdal (Vegard).