Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) sets the screen ablaze as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first installment in Stieg Larsson’s bestseller trilogy. Despite a big budget remake in 2011 (without Noomi), the original series continues to reign, holding its own in international popularity, and it served as an impressive calling card for Rapace and global stardom. After carrying out an ingenious revenge on her abusive, court-appointed guardian, Lisbeth teams up with investigative reporter, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) who has been hired by a rich businessman to investigate the decades-old disappearance of his niece. This opens up a Pandora’s Box of the family’s secrets, as well as a link to a string of serial killings.
“A mind-bending and mesmerizing thriller that takes its time unlocking one mystery only to uncover another, all to chilling and immensely satisfying effect.” – Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
“Rapace, a brooding beauty who won a Swedish Oscar for this performance — and also appears in two more forthcoming installments of this series — invests Lisbeth with a powerful, wounded dignity; she’s much more than a Lara Croft-style cartoon.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
“A poisonous gem, in large part thanks to fearless performances and an unwaveringly graphic sensibility that doesn’t flinch at the most horrific parts of Larsson’s story. Tattoo is as much mood piece as mystery, and the mood is almost always disturbing. But Oplev and his screenwriters turn Larsson’s blunt prose into an artfully emotional film, and Fincher would be hard-pressed to do better.” – Tasha Robinson, A.V. Club
