[3.9]
[Note: this is NOT the David Fincher version, but the earlier Swedish adaptation]
Pretty good mystery thriller in which a disgraced reporter and a bitter, lonely young woman both attempt to solve a decades-old crime: the apparent murder of a rich man’s daughter. Everyone in the family is suspect, as they are all shown to be greedy, manipulative people with sketchy pasts (several of them had been involved heavily with the Nazi party). Some politics and class issues sneak their way into the story (the reporter has been framed for trying to uncover the real story behind a wealthy businessman’s dealings and the punk-looking girl is treated with trepidation and contempt by those around her, even though she is clearly a very smart lady). The girl’s story isn’t nearly as interesting as the reporter’s, and though I was horrified to see how her foster father abused and raped her, it did little to advance the story other than to show how the girl was forced into vulnerability and then triumphed. I suppose the film had to show more of the girl and her evolution, as this is the first in a trilogy of films featuring her, but it was the reporter and his investigation that was a real thrust of the story. After the big reveal (in which the son of an ex-Nazi is found to have been a serial killer since the 1950’s, though no one had ever seemed to notice all the missing girls), the climax seems a bit weak: he crashes his car and is burnt alive in it by the girl. It was also a bit annoying that the “murdered” girl ended up just being missing after all these years, and that she had never found a better way to contact her father and reveal the awful truth that she knew about her father and brother. The acting and filmmaking are pretty good, and its interesting to see a girl with alternative sensibilities being given a little bit of a rounded role (although she still kind of is that goth/emo stereotype); all the more reason for my sadness at the end, when she is “fixed” and transformed into a rich, beautiful blonde. Sell out.
burning retina 