Book VS Movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

American Movie Poster

Yesterday, I saw this movie with my best friend. I read the book and loved it, I've even watched the Swedish versions of the movies. So when I heard they were doing an American adaptation I was excited. I know the books are always better than the movies, but for me, there are some things I just can never imagine right so I like to see the movie so I can see possibly what others saw.

This... not sure what to call it other than Book VS Movie post will be mostly the differences between the book and the movie and my thoughts about those. This means there will be spoilers, so if you don't want to know what happens in the book and/or movie than do not read this post. I will mostly discuss the overall movie, what thoughts and then break down things I did or did not like about the movie compared to the book.

So the movie overall was pretty good. I will discuss this later, but I was very happy with it up to a certain part of the ending and that just made me not like it as much. The acting was good, the movie stayed true to the book for the most part. There was some minor details that was left out, but I honestly didn't think those would make it into the movie, since some of them didn't make it into the Swedish version either. The music was good, it was done by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. If you are not familiar, Trent Reznor is the singer from Nine Inch Nails so the sound of the music fits him and the movie pretty well. The opening credits reminded me of a Bond Film, no parts of the movie just some crazy shit and a very interesting song.


So now we get to the part of this post about the movie compared to the book. I hope to explain everything, but it has been some time since I have read the book, so not all the details are fresh in my mind.

Book Cover

The movie started off very strong with being almost spot on with the book. I was very pleased to see that they started off with the retired police detective and Vanger on the phone talk about the present he keeps receiving. The movie like I said was very good and there was little that I did not like about it. The things I was disappointed with however left me feeling a little annoyed by it, because it seem like it made the ending... messy.

The first thing that has been bothering me about this movie compared to the book has since I've seen the trailer. Rooney Mara playing the female lead of Lizbeth Salander. I guess maybe Noomi Rapace is exactly how I imagine Salander and the way they have Rooney Mara's look at Salander just doesn't fit for me. Not sure how you can get a gothic punk loner image wrong, but it just doesn't work for me. Also, when I was reading the book and watching the Swedish movies I actually liked Lizbeth. They way Mara player her I just did not like her nor could I connect to her. I am not sure why, even the sex scenes between Mikael and Lizbeth did not help any. I didn't feel that lusting connection that the two have in the book.


The other thing that completely pissed me off. I tried not to sit there and shake my head when I saw it. If you have read the book and I hope if you have gotten this far in my post you have because this will spoil everything if you have no clue about the story. They find Harriet through her cousin who lives in London... now in the book her cousin calls Harriet who is living in Australia widowed with sons and running her own sheep farm. In the movie the cousin in London is Harriet who is a lonely investment banker. This maybe no matter to people who have not read the book, but I thought this part of the book was very interesting. In the movie, if felt like they just wanted to ended the search for Harriet and get to the part of Mikeal shutting down the man who sued him for libel and all. I felt it was sloppy and just put me in a sour mood for the rest of the movie, which was done close to the book.

What they left out. Now since I didn't reread the book, not all the details are fresh in my mind, but these are about stuck out in my mind. Most of them are nothing major in case you are wondering.

First there is no mention of Lizbeth's hacker chatroom, which isn't anything major, but still it explained a few scenes in the book. Second, they left out her ability to memorize everything. I cannot remember the term, but she didn't have to write things down or anything. Again, not major and there is a scene, but it's so short that I am not sure anyone got it.

Another thing left out is the prolong relationship between Lizbeth and Mikael. In the book, when Mikael is writing his article and all about Wennerstrom corruption. There Lizbeth realizes she is in love with Mikael and because they enjoy the holidays with Elvis she buys him a gift just to see him. In the movie she buys him a leather jacket. So the ending is right, just not the gift.

So overall I give the movie 4 stars. Just because of the two elements I mentioned that bothered me about the movie that took away one star.  If you enjoyed the book, I think you will enjoy the movie as well, just be prepared to have some things omitted for the sake of... well probably time and for the audience that hasn't read the books.