As you have noticed I have not posted anything in a while. Hopefully that will change but let me just give you a brief update on what I have been up to then I will provide a review of the movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I have graduated from the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. I have just received my MLS and my New York State Public Librarian’s License in the mail. I have also just started a new part-time job as the night librarian at the St. Paul’s School of Nursing in Staten Island. I currently live in the Bronx so that is one long commute. Overall everything is as well as expected, things could be better but they could also be worse. I am thinking about the future of this blog but I haven’t made many decisions about it yet. I might expand its focus beyond just library and information science stuff to more of a focus on the stuff that interests Myron which includes library and information science but I’ll say more about that later.
Okay now I am going to provide a review of the movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I want to note that I enjoyed the book immensely and this review does look at some comparisons between the book and the movie. I was not too impressed with the movie. It is safe to say, if I read the movie version of this story in the book I probably would not have fallen in love with the book.
Overall, the plot of the book was left intact for the most part but the movie really simplified a lot of the relationships that made the book so interesting. The character that suffers the most in the translation from book to film is Mikael Blomkvist. The movie has made him a “Boy Scout.” He has only one sexual relationship in the movie (three guesses as to with who). Considering that some of his personal relationships in the book would have provided some more dramatic tension, cutting out those relationships really made the movie suffer. The movie also narrows the focus to the mystery at the center the book, minimizes the other major narrative thread that drove the book; essentially reducing it to a prologue and epilogue. While there are some pluses and minuses for minimizing it, I felt the movie could have done a better job of incorporating it into the storyline. Also, by the way it was minimized, it actually diminishes Blomkvist’s character.
My major pet peeve of the movie was how it valorized Lisbeth Salander at the cost of every other character. Make no mistake, Salander is the star of this series but the way the movie highlights her awesomeness winds up making her look more like a caricature than the interesting character she is presented as in the books. The Vanger family wasn’t as well-developed as they could have been. It would have helped the narrative if you became attached to them before the denouncement of the mystery occurred.
Characters like Erika Berger were glorified extras in this movie. Erika is actually one of my favorite characters in these books so I am especially disappointed. Although the book series is called the Millenium trilogy, Millenium was hardly a presence considering the subplot concerning the fate of Millenium magazine is cut out completely. Also, one character who plays a major part in the sequel but not in this story has a blink and you will miss it appearance. While I did not expect her to play a major part in this movie, she did get enough of an introduction in the book that I cared about what happened to her in the second book. I don’t think I would even remember what she looks like when she shows up in the second movie, assuming she is even played by the same actress.
Overall, I was disappointed but at least the casting was age appropriate for the most part. The actors and actresses are appropriately middle-aged and not-so-glamourous, which I don’t think would the case in the inevitable Hollywood remake (it is coming).
I was surprised (maybe I shouldn’t have been) at how many people going to the screening I went to did not read the book. As you could tell I was disappointed at the movie but maybe my expectations were too high. I am looking forward to reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest when it is released in May.
