I watched the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last night BY MYSELF which was honestly very relaxing and nice. Besides the fact that I don't speak Swedish and had to read subtitles I still liked it a lot. It was a perfect adaptation of the book. Perfect! Lisbeth Salander looked just like she should look except for one thing. The dragon tattoo on her back was too big. In the book it was on her shoulder, but in the movie it covered her entire back and looked like it was scratching and trying to emerge from her body, which is kind of cool, I guess, if you like tattoos, and you know the character, but IT WASN'T THE SAME. The other main character, Mikael Blomkvist, was good too, but he was a little creepier than the Mikael that I pictured in my head. The actor had spooky eyes and he reminded me of someone who I could never put my finger on so that was a bit distracting. (Harvey Keitel? No. The devil? No. Maybe if Harvey and the devil had a baby?)
The settings were absolutely perfect. It was like the set directors were in my head! (or read the books!) I love when that happens. Another thing I really liked about the movie was that the older women looked like older women. In the book they were pretty women in their late 50s and 60s and the actors actually were pretty women in their late 50s and 60s. No casting a 38 year old freakish bombshell who looks like she's actually 28 to play a woman who is supposed to be 58.
Things I learned about Sweden: 1) Prisons are like college here in the States, 2) Lakes apparently don't freeze even when it's bone-chillingly cold outside. Maybe they are made from vodka. No, that's Russia. I'll have to research. 3) "Jävel" is how you say "motherfucker" in Swedish. You're welcome!
OK, weird, but the version I watched was the Swedish version, with English subtitles AND English audio dubbed over. So I didn't have to read anything, but the words you were hearing didn't match up with the movement of the mouths. Kind of like those old kung-fu movies, yes.
ReplyDeleteDid the movie start out as slow as the book. The plot really took off after pg 200, but I had puy my head in the oven twice on the way there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the new foreign swear!
Homemaker Man, HI! No, they skipped all that slow stuff that was at the beginning of the book. The movie was the bare bones of the story. It was good.
ReplyDeleteHomemaker Man, HI! No, they skipped all that slow stuff that was at the beginning of the book. The movie was the bare bones of the story. It was good.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the movie left out that bit about his silly daughter simply casually glancing at the secret codes nobody in forty years could figure out and immediately knowing they were bible verses. Whatevs.
ReplyDeleteOf course the genius Lisbeth would figure that out.