Rosenbush Café

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, based on the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, are the best films of 2010. For my last movie reviews at Rosenbush Cafe I plan a comprehensive retrospective of the massively popular Swedish books, all published posthumously; such a shame because all indications are Mr. Larsson was the kind of honest journo the world has few of anymore. He fought for human rights and was able to transform his life and career into a satisfying set of books.

I have seen all three films at the Art Houses in Atlanta; GWDT and GWKHN at The Landmark and GWPWF at The Tara.

Armed with my senior citizen’s ticket (57 soon and I accept “old age benefits”) I sat in an audience of three couples at the 10:20 p.m. EST unspooling of Hornet last night, returning home at 333 a.m. CST!

I know of no one willing to travel 300 from West Ala to Metro Atlanta but I am an obsessive foreign film fan. Most domestic films bore me or are remakes of remakes of poor films that should never been backlit.

The cinematically backwards state of West Ala has one art film house (The Capri in Montgomery), which did not have the final film, which opened nationwide (ha) on October 29th, and since I viewed the first two consecutively on the same afternoon in September (I received a bonus of a splendid rainbow after heading north on I 85) to enjoy the narrative as one work.

I am here to advise no one will recapture the verisimilitude of Noomi Rapace, as protagonist Lisbeth Salander. With many returning characters from the first two films, headed by Michael Nyqvist as journalist Mikael Blomkvist, the bestselling novels (now all in paperback with English translation) are by far the best films I saw in 2010, a year which included viewed – but never reviewed – heavy weights like Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan’s Inception, as excellent story telling.

Rapace, covered in tatts and piercing, is easily my choice for the best actress of 2010 and her perf touched me profoundly, as it should anyone with a pulse. This is no female victim and the accolades for her intensely serious persona is impressive on every level. The computer hacker and girl with a photographic memory is unlike any heroine on screen and her story is more compelling than all the “serious” U.S. made films of the past year combined.

While the massive novels by the late author (he died in 2004) are naturally altered for cinematic purposes the major storylines of the three films follows close enough to satiate all but the most jaded of fans. Graphically adult in themes and containing a rape sequence (GWDT) that is the most realistic and horrifying set piece in recent memory, even more than Gaspar Noe’s controversial 8-minute rape in Irreversible (not as long but far more grueling) – should affect men even more than women for it’s depiction of this worldwide problem perpetrated by the the sickest of the male gender. Even when this scene is briefly repeated in the second and third films it made me want to punish the offender myself; thankfully punishments and believeable comeuppances are forthcoming.

The reviews will contain comparisons to the books, include spoilers, excerpted scenes and interviews and why I think David Fincher’s 2011 American remake of GWDT is a western cultural misstep designed for those who do not enjoy subtitled films and why the talented director of Fight Club will be unable to surpass the splendid Swedish originals.

The first two films are now available on DVD and Blue Ray with the final installment slated for a January, 2011 release, as well as, a boxed set containing the trilogy. Be forewarned these are not films for young children or viewers easily offended. The films contain graphic profanity, strong sexual content and graphic violence and plenty of corruption involving the Swedish government and enough sub plots (all resolved in the final film) to keep even the most attentive audiences entertained, and or confused!