Men who hate women

Swedish movies always had quite a reputation for being "loose" and "liberal". This one is no exception. In fact, it takes Swedish sin to new hights. Sado-masochistic violence, sadistic rape, explicit sex between a middle-aged man and a twenty-something woman, and a serial killer who makes Hannibal Lector look like a joke.

Yepp, that's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" alright, based on the best-selling novel by the late Stieg Larsson. In Swedish, both the novel and the film are called "Men who hate women". Larsson was a left-wing activist and feminist, and probably believed in various conspiracy theories as well. I never met him, but I've met people who have. (One of them often comments on this blog.)

The heroine of Larsson's story, Lisbeth Salander, is a young woman with Asperger syndrome and a background of mental illness. Her story isn't fully revealed until the sequels, but we do learn that she's a survivor of sexual abuse, a computer hacker and something of a feminist vigilante. In "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", she teams up with a reporter named Mikael Blomkvist to investigate a cold murder case which turns out to have staggering implications.

I don't deny that the acting is superb, and most of the actors are well known in Sweden. I'm not sure how much the dialogue looses in English translation, but believe me, it certainly works in Swedish!

Still, I don't like the movie. It's too violent and bizarre, and the character of Lisbeth Salander is simply unbelievable. Of course, feminist vigilantes *are* unbelievable (there are very few of them around!), but Salander is just too much.

Unfortunately, however, the dark plot isn't completely unrealistic, not after the Fritzl case in Austria and other cases of children kept in captivity.

I therefore have very mixed feelings about this one. But since it's Swedish and well acted, I nevertheless give it three stars.