Watched a rather long winded first of three, book to movie incarnations in 'THE GIRL ..' series. Was not sure what it might be - the name intrigued me - 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoos'. Honestly I had low expectations going in to watch, what with having seen many a housewife consume the hard cover ed many months ago when those came out. It was flying off the local store shelves. Hmm.. the movie though whatever the book might have been is actually a fun whodunit showing intrepid flamboyance with dogged cunning destroying a mentally distrubed nutjob.
The movie is Bond-esque thrills and techno mumbo jumbo crossed with good old fashion gumshoe journalism. The latter is the alter ego of the author Steig Larsson who was himself involved with research, tracking and exposing of neo-Nazi and fanatic cultures. It also features the current Bond incarnation in the form of Daniel Craig playing the protagonist. The young newbie, (to me anyway) Rooney Mara is "the girl with the dragon tattoos"..fast food chewing, bisexual, distrubed in her own way explorer.
Not sure if it was me but I thought the cast starts out dialog with a heavy Swedish accent to emphasize the ambient (author and story line was based in Sweden) but later seem to switch to more easy to understand speech. Not sure why they had to play with the accents - not like the movie was made for Swedes to watch. They I believe have their own movie version of the book.
The disturbed kid who works as a freelance investigator seems to live off of McDonald's and sugary coffee and proclaims to have a high metabolism along with a photographic memory.
Other than the smattering of some oft seen support cast was erstwhile Captain Von Trapp ... the ancient dude played by Christopher Plummer. I think he may even have gotten his one and only Oscar statuette for this...before he sort of met his maker.
All in all keeps you entertained although it could have moved quicker as many American Studio productions do.
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
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