It's been almost seven months since my
last Book vs. Movie article (on V for Vendetta). This time I
thought it'd be fun to take on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
(2011, the American version
directed by David Fincher). I'm not sure if I've mentioned
this before, but TGWtDT is one of my favourite movies and you'll
likely see it brought up on this blog a few more times in the future.
I only recently got around to reading the book – the 2008 English
language Penguin Books version – and despite its 841-page length
it was a pretty breezy read for me. It was so addictive, I couldn't
have read it fast enough. So was this fine piece of mystery
literature translated effectively to the big screen? Let's find out!
And also, spoiler alert.
Let's begin by a plot recap. Since the
movie's plot stays fairly close to the book's, consider this a recap
of both. Millennium Magazine's editor and investigative
reporter Mikael Blomkvist has just lost a libel case against wealthy
financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. The brilliant yet troubled young
hacker/investigator Lisbeth Salander writes a report on Blomkvist for
the aging industrialist Henrik Vanger, who has a special job for the
disgraced journalist. In exchange for evidence of Wennerstrom's
wrongdoings, Vanger wants Blomkvist to investigate the 1966
disappearance/murder of his grandniece Harriet. Blomkvist agrees and
moves north to the Vanger family compound to conduct his
investigation.
Meanwhile Lisbeth, a ward of the state,
is assigned a new legal guardian, Nils Bjurman, who extorts sexual
favours from her, even going so far as to violently rape her.
Unbeknownst to Bjurman, Lisbeth caught the incident on a hidden
camera. Lisbeth later returns to Bjurman's apartment, tortures him,
and then uses the rape footage to blackmail him into granting her
more control over her life and her finances.
Blomkvist realizes that he needs a
research assistant, and is referred to Salander. Intrigued, Lisbeth
agrees to help and moves in with him at the compound. The two become
lovers. As the case progresses the two learn that Harriet's fate may
be linked to a string of unsolved murders throughout Sweden from the
1940's to 1960's. Eventually, each of them identify Martin Vanger
(Harriet's brother, current CEO of Vanger Industries) as a suspect.
Mikael takes to snooping around Martin's house for clues, but Martin
arrives home in time to catch him, tie him up, torture him, and brag
to him about the murders he committed, first with his father (who
drowned in 1965) and then on his own up to the present day. Lisbeth
arrives just in time to knock down Martin and save Mikael. Martin
tries to escape as Lisbeth pursues him on her motorbike. Martin dies
in a traffic “accident” (more on that later). But since Martin
denied killing Harriet, the mystery still hasn't been solved. The duo
surmise that if Harriet is still alive (i.e. she ran away from the
compound with the help of a family member), then news of Martin's
death might lead to her whereabouts. Through Harriet's cousin Anita,
they find out that Harriet is indeed alive decades after fleeing from
her brother and father (whom it turns out she murdered in self
defence) who had been sexually abusing her for years. She is reunited
with her loving uncle Henrik.
Unfortunately, the dirt Henrik delivers
on Wennerstrom is effectively useless, much to Mikael's
disappointment. Lisbeth offers to hack into Wennerstrom's computers.
Mikael uses the resulting information to write an exposé in
Millennium that ruins Wennerstrom, who flees the country.
Lisbeth dons a disguise and travels Europe hacking into Wennerstrom's
bank accounts and emptying them into various other accounts.
Wennerstrom is soon found murdered by gangsters. By now Lisbeth finds
herself falling for Mikael, but on her way to give him a Christmas
present she sees him with his co-editor and occasional lover Erika
Berger. Heartbroken, Lisbeth throws the gift in a dumpster and rides
off into the night.
Like I said, the basic plot of the
movie mostly adheres to that of the book, but there are some moderate
changes here and there. Probably the biggest changes are how Martin
is defeated and how Harriet is found. In the book, Martin strips
Mikael naked, ties him up, beats and kicks him a bit, and then begins
hanging him before Lisbeth arrives. As he tries fleeing the scene he
decides to kill himself by driving straight into an oncoming big rig.
In the movie Martin ties up Blomkvist (clothed), puts a plastic bag
over his head, and is about to castrate him before Lisbeth shows up.
This time Martin's SUV spins out on some black ice at the end of the
bridge and crashes. An explosion engulfs the car, depriving Lisbeth
of the chance to shoot its driver. No big deal, I guess.
As for Harriet, the duo from the book
discover her probable whereabouts by tracing phone calls from Anita's
house (in London) after Anita is informed of Martin's death.
Following the trail, Blomkvist travels to Australia to find Harriet
living as a rancher under her new married name. Salander and
Blomkvist try this same method in the film, but this time it leads
nowhere. Seeing no other possibilities, Blomkvist correctly surmises
that Anita is Harriet. It turns out that Anita died shortly
after Harriet's escape, allowing the latter to adopt her identity and
live in London ever since. This twist has some problems. First, is
that Australia is a much better place to go to if you want to
disappear. London isn't all that far from Uppsala, which brings us to
the second problem: we're supposed to buy that in 40 years no
relatives tried to visit or contact “Anita” even though she kept
her real last name? Seems kind of flimsy if you ask me. One thing I
do have to give the movie's twist credit for is that it doesn't come
out of nowhere. There's a scene earlier in the movie where Mikael
goes to London to question “Anita” about Harriet's disappearance,
unaware of who he's really talking to. Movie twists work best when
they call back to something the audience already knows about, and
making Harriet someone we've seen before feels more satisfying than
introducing her as a new character. So really, this change isn't all
that bad.
The last notable difference between the
book's and the film's plots is how the whole
Martin-Vanger-is-a-serial-killer/rapist thing is covered up. In the
book, Dirch Frode, Henrik's lawyer and close confidant, is certain
that this news will destroy Vanger Industries. Salander agrees to
keep it a secret in exchange for the company making large annual
donations towards charities for distressed women. Mikael very
reluctantly agrees even though it violates his journalistic
integrity. (He does it mainly for Harriet, who would be humiliated
and wanted for murder if the story ever went public.) The movie on
the other hand completely glosses over the cover up. Similarly, the
movie leaves out the part detailing what the future of Vanger
Industries with Harriet will look like. Everything just works out...
somehow. In short, I'd say that if you're the type of person who
places great value on details and you want everything as fully
fleshed out as possible then you'll likely prefer the book's plot
over the film's.
That about does it for the plot. Stay tuned next week for part 2!
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