This movie is very suspenseful despite its length of over two and a half hours. This is the first novel in a proposed trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Rooney Mara is quite effective as the brooding girl with dark hair and several skin piercings along with a unique tattoo. Her character’s name is Lisbeth Salander. Daniel Craig also plays reporter Mikael Blomkvist with a brooding intensity. He is quite believable as the man who is hired to solve a mystery over forty years old. Just what happened to Henrik’s (Christopher Plummer) niece Harriet, the girl he was raising until she disappeared and is assumed long dead? Mikael is a reporter who could well have been an investigator for the police. He notices every detail and sniffs when something isn’t right like a blood hound smells blood.
Despite the stellar cast which also features Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgard, the movie’s content is heavy with graphic sexual and violent scenes including the anal rape of a woman, and a married woman carrying on an affair, in addition to frequent nudity and strong language. There is also a strong scene of a bloody and decapitated cat. We cannot award our Dove Seal to this movie.
