Maybe you don't want to sit next to me

Saturday night my Sweetie and I got the chance to see the English version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I read the Girl trilogy of books a little over a year ago and then S and I watched the Swedish films. The novels pulled me in right away because I was pleasantly surprised by how well Larsson’s words were translated from Swedish to English. But what kept me interested was Lisabeth Salander’s complex and guarded personality.

So when I found out a year ago that the films were being made in English, I knew that I wanted to see them. Ok, I was also a little extra giddy that Daniel Craig was cast for the male lead.

The opening scene of snow and ice grabbed me quickly and took my breath away. I leaned over to my Sweetie and said, I want to go to Sweden.

What is it with me and wanting to go to cold, dark, and damp climates?

Anyway... This might be viewed as sacrilege by some… I liked the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song in the opening credits better than the original. I leaned over again and said so to S. Honestly, I try not to talk during a movie in the theater but sometimes it can’t be helped.

As with the Swedish films, the new film doesn’t sugar-coat anything. There is sexual violence in the movie and it is difficult to watch. I was prepared for it as much as I possibly could be. Because of the violence, we told G-Man that he couldn’t see the movie just yet.

I liked Daniel Craig better than his Swedish counterpart… but I might be a bit partial. On the other hand, I preferred Noomi Rapace to Rooney Mara even though both actresses went all out with their character portrayal.

During the film I might have momentarily fantasized about getting a dragon tattoo myself until the logical part of my brain concluded that I could then be called the middle-aged woman with the dragon tattoo.

My Sweetie pointed out that not having to read subtitles made the film more enjoyable and seemed to make the story flow easier. True. I brought my knitting to the theater (yes, I knit in the movie theater) with me because I figured that I wouldn’t be distracted by reading. But didn’t get a chance to knit because it was a packed theater and I didn’t want to constantly elbow the nice woman next to me.

I did notice a few quirky things about the film…

I was reminded again about how much coffee the characters drink, how many sandwiches the characters eat, and how many cigarettes they smoke. It makes me wonder if that’s an accurate slice of the Swedish lifestyle.

The newspapers in the film were in Swedish EXCEPT for when the audience was supposed to learn some information. Then the headlines or photo captions were in English. I found that odd. I can’t think of another film that’s used two different languages in that way.

The make-up artists on the James Bond movies must be awfully busy because it turns out that Daniel Craig’s back is covered in moles. Eww.

Robin Wright plays a character named Erika Berger and all of her scenes are with Daniel Craig. I know the character’s name because I read the book. Apparently, the screenwriters and/or film editors assumed that the entire audience read the book as well because her name was never mentioned.

That’s right, I sat through a 2.5 hour movie and not once did I hear Daniel Craig utter my name. I left the theater a little broken-hearted.

Oh well, there are still two movies to go in the series.