Known in Sweden as Men Who Hate Women, Stieg Larsson’s first novel (and first installment in The Millennium Trilogy) has made it to the big screen.

Solid acting and foolproof plot arrive with sides of torture, revenge, and mystery—all of which may seem uncomfortable to watch while doing so, but become necessary scenes driving us all to further invest in these characters and their conclusions.

@ The Naro.

The only tattooing in the movie is most certainly not of a dragon and its purpose leaves you hiding your eyes with one hand while punching your other fist angrily in the air.

For some quick background, The Millennium Trilogy was written prior to Larsson’s sudden 2004 death. It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, the editor of Millennium, a political magazine in Stockholm (based heavily on Larsson’s real life). He’s just been convicted of slander against a rich tycoon due to an exposé turned bad. He’s innocent but can’t prove it.

While awaiting prison, he’s hired by a different tycoon, Henrik Vangar, to spend a few months on his island researching the 1966 disappearance of his niece, Harriet. A few other Vangar’s live on the island (where Harriet’s disappearance and assumed murder took place), all with their own eccentricities (to put it mildly) so Mikael moves up and digs in.

Meanwhile, we have Lisbeth Salandar, a character so enigmatic, original, and unforgettable, I foresee her becoming slang in the decades to come (as in, your crush catches you Facebook stalking and says “you’re too salandacious for me” or something like that…though that word is already way too long for Facebook, so we’ll see).

Lisbeth’s got a mysterious, presumably abusive past. She’s got a photographic memory and works as a hacker. She’s petite and gets kicked around (physically) a lot. She’s smart and kicks right back (mentally) usually with more vigor than whomever she’s getting revenge on. And I’m pretty sure she has Asperger’s, as being close to anyone is challenging for her. She ends up going to the island to assist Mikael after a particularly harsh attack by her financial guardian and they end up entangled in more than either expected.

The movie really keeps in the same spirit as the novel. The way I imaged Lisbeth, Bjurman, and Mikael were spot-on and gave the story more life, more wind in its sails than film versions of good books usually are capable of. In fact, I liked the arrangement of the plot more in the film than in the novel. The book (while juggling a few more subplots, which may be my distraction) doesn’t tie up one story before going to the next. It sometimes felt jagged—especially at the end. In the film, however, between deleting a few minor characters and using short, visual-only flashbacks to give us a sense of history, I felt the plot was more concise and better edited. The viewer will not leave seeing this story with any less emotion than the reader.

Oh my is she intense!

Movies based on books rarely live up to their potential, but this cast and crew did its job of telling Larsson’s story. Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth was amazing. I cannot think of a single English-speaking actress who would do the part justice. She was tough, tattoed, fragile, fidgety—everything described in the book. She came across as feral—with Mikael dumbfounded by this whipsmart boy-woman who saves him more than once between cigarettes and uncomfortable silences.

Michael Nyqvist as Mikael was another example of spot-on casting. The character is supposed to be a bit of a playboy—but not a Lothario. He’s charming and intelligent and semi-famous, which attracts a certain kind of woman—attractive but not sexy or gorgeous— the female version of himself. While his wandering eye is somewhat downplayed in this film (curious to see if its addressed in the sequels), Nyqvist has mastered the balance between endearing and aloof.

The settings—almost entirely in Sweden—were also accurate. From the gritty subway stations, to the sleek city office dwellings, to the frigid countryside thawing its way through a decades old murder mystery, the location team did their job well.

My only criticism would be this movie is not particularly visually inspiring. While the sets and costumes are great, the actual cinematography and editing could use some elan. We see the same old black and white photo of Harriet wearing this creepy Mona Lisa smile fade in and out more times than necessary. The director wasn’t subtle when he wants you to know to “think about Harriet now,” and he uses this technique with other themes he hopes you to reach for subliminally while hindering you from doing so with bald imagery.

So no Oscars for visuals, but hopefully a Best Foreign Film will happen. It deserves it.

For any of you who have read the book, this will be a must see.

For those of you who like to brag about how “you saw it first,” you should also see this. The US version of the film is in the casting phase now and will likely become popular in its own right. It’ll be like when The Ring came out and you had already seen Ringu. This version’s graphic and gritty and not full of Hollywood, car chases, botox, or body doubles. It’s the real deal.

The film starts tonight at The Naro Cinema, which is our good friend and we don’t care who knows it.