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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2025-02-17 17:00:02
Edited:
2025-06-21 00:00:38
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Content

My first foreign film! And potentially the most uncomfortable I've ever been during a movie. 😅 Thank you to Nate Jasper for submitting this request through my Reactr page. Note that this is not the extended version of the film, just the regular version. [Direct link here.]

Please enjoy! I'm looking forward to your comments.

✦ KL

Files

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction

Comments

William

Oh, awesome! These are amazing films.

Movies with KL

I forgot to mention in the post that this will be edited for YouTube at some point later this year!

Tyler Foster

I knew it was Nate, I knew it was foreign, and I knew he loves Noomi, and he's been talking in the Discord about how much he hates the Fincher version, so I was 99% confident it was going to be this. Personally, I like the Fincher version quite a bit, but I also haven't read the book (not that it would matter much, as I think adaptations should be granted complete freedom to do whatever they want -- not that I or anyone else is necessarily going to like changes made in the adaptation process, but they should still have the freedom) or ever seen this version, even though I've meant to, especially since the Fincher version never got sequels adapting the other books. The remake was a success but not a runaway hit, so they eventually lost Fincher and their cast, leading to a sequel 7 years later with a different director and star, adapting a book that was written after the original author of the series died, which nobody seemed to like very much. Note: I was wrong about this - the two sequels to this were directed by Tomas' older brother Daniel, but neither Alfredson directed this one. Whoops! [This version is by Tomas Alfredson, who directed the great Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In (2008). There was a whole controversy when it was initially released on Blu-ray and DVD where, for whatever reason, the US distributor commissioned a new English-language subtitle track, and it was deeply inferior to the subs they had used theatrically, prompting an apology and new discs with the original, more artful and accurate subtitles. Unfortunately, I have no idea which versions are available on streaming, so in the instance that you ever watch it, you may want to track down a disc that is confirmed (probably by UPC) to have the correct subtitles. I know the bad ones are still out there, and I saw one reaction that used them, which was a shame. You would also know Alfredson from directing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Like Dragon Tattoo, Let the Right One In also has an American remake, Let Me In, which I again thought was pretty good if you intentionally looked at the two movies as going for different tones.] Looking forward to watching this sometime this week. Also, just curious, Nathan: Do you like the extended cut? (I own both, although if I'm watching this full-length then the choice is made for me.)

Nathan Jasper

So we'll start with a little trivia to get things going! Noomi did a lot of preparation for this role. She did 7 months worth of training in kick boxing, went on a strict diet to so that she could be small but toned as Larsson described in her book and so she could do her own stunts. She also learned and received her motorcycle license in order to do her own riding in the film. Lisbeth's mother in the film is Noomi's actual mother Nina Noren. The girl that played young Lisbeth actually worked with Noomi again in another great film called Beyond (or Svinalangorna) which I also highly recommend if it ever streams again. Noomi was a newcomer at this point, having only done tiny roles here and there, and was so determined to get Lisbeth right that she bleached her eyebrows constantly, ironically so much so that they eventually disappeared and a makeup artist had to artificially apply them. The director seemed to like the look as it turns out. The music for all three Swedish films was recorded in a 4 day period, the note sheets for the whole orchestra weighing 72 pounds (33 kilos) total. Whether it was intended or not, the photo of Harriet Vanger has a bit of an eerie likeness to the Mona Lisa, which kind of fits as there's a lot of mystery around both figures. The Swedish title for the film is "Man Som Hatar Kvinnor" which actually translates to "Men Who Hate Women". So glad the English title kept Stieg's novel title, otherwise no one savory would have seen it LOL Lastly, Noomi's husband Ola Rapace was offered Mikael's role however he turned it down but suggested Noomi for Lisbeth. She was so highly praised and got a remarkable career boost from the trilogy which ironically was a big contribution to why the two started having marital problems. That and his gambling issues. He got in trouble with some heavy hitters and, with her career going international after Sherlock Holmes 2 and Prometheus, she divorced him and gained custody of their son. A few things about Stieg Larsson, the book author, he witnessed a rape when he was 15 and couldn't stop it. The real girl's name was Lisbeth. A lot of his career was exposing sexual violence against women, especially when it involved people in power. While he finished the book trilogy before his death in 2004, the books were not published until afterwards. A lot of people wrote it off as a simple heart attack. The man did have a stressful job after all. But... I find it interesting he died mere months after turning in the manuscripts for the Millennium trilogy, the works just as much of an expose as his professional job as an investigative journalist. So did he have a heart attack? Or was he poisoned? I have my own little conspiracy theory. We talked a little about this earlier but what I'm comfortable sharing publicly is that I saw this when I was 19 and knew nothing about the real world. And seeing this gave me a whole new insight into the world at large. People use and manipulate and kill and commit all kinds of acts and justify it with some Old Testament scripture that's not even practiced anymore. I have this film to thank for a lot of my beliefs, thought processes, and world views that I still stand firm on today. The fact that reactr gave me the opportunity to share this experience with you and the community is incredible. Thank you for watching and I hope you do continue with the trilogy. There's absolutely no need to see the remake (I know I know, completionist). There were books that continued the story after Stieg's initial three novels, an eighth releasing this September. Only the first four books have movie adaptations. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Girl Who Played with Fire The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest The Girl in the Spider's Web The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye The Girl Who Lived Twice The Girl in the Eagle's Talons The Girl with Ice in her Veins Anyway, sorry for the massive post, thanks again!

Nathan Jasper

I prefer the extended cut over theatrical as it lets the film breathe more and has more of the source material in it. If you'd like, we can talk after you've seen this one as to why I despise Fincher's version privately so that there's no bias when KL watches it.

Nathan Jasper

Also this film was directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who also directed Noomi in Dead Man Down with Colin Farrell

Tyler Foster

I mean, you've talked about it a little in the Discord, and like I said in the comment above: I think a new adaptation should have complete freedom to change or alter whatever the filmmakers want. That's not to say I begrudge anyone else for viewing adaptations differently; most people do. Still, while I might ultimately like the original movie better when I watch it, or the book, and lament stuff that didn't make the jump, the only thing that will have any bearing on how I view Fincher's movie is Fincher's movie. I like the characters that movie presents and how they relate to one another within his film's version of the story, and that's all that matters to me. It's one of those reasons I like to work backwards through adaptations. As books are almost always said to be better than their film adaptations and originals are almost always said to be better than remakes, if I start with the remake of an adaptation, I can watch a hypothetically inferior version of a story without judgment stemming from those better versions, and then move backward to something that should be richer. Also, whoops, you are correct. It's the second and third movie that are directed by an Alfredson, and not even Tomas, but his older brother Daniel. I knew there was a connection there, but I remembered it incorrectly.

Vincent Hollow

Do you think you will complete the trilogy (Girl Who Played with Fire, Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) or will you stick with just Dragon Tattoo? I totally understand if you just watch DT, but will be excited if you choose to continue.

Movies with KL

I'd like to watch the other two, but only the first and second were added online and the third one still isn't watchable in Canada. But I'm not prioritizing them for the immediate future as I've got the next couple months already *roughly* planned out.

Nathan Jasper

Sure I agree they should have freedom but remakes dumbing down characters, especially based on works that someone quite literally poured trauma, blood, sweat, and tears into is a slap in the face and a dead man can't fight back.

Vincent Hollow

Oh, there is no rush, I was merely curious 🙂. I have only ever seen the Fincher version reacted to (which I haven't seen yet), so seeing you've watched the original (which I love, but yeah, it's a rough one), was very surprising and exciting, for sure.🙂

Steve Mercier

I go back and forth between this one and David Fincher's version as to which I prefer. This one got here first, in Swedish, and has the spectacular Noomi Rapace in the title role--all good shit. Fincher's has a far stronger all-around cast--in my opinion--Rooney Mara (who's every bit as good as Miss Rapace), and, you know, David Fincher. But this one still hits the high marks pretty hard. Going to watch this while I eat. Good shit.

Tyler Foster

Obviously, you feel very personally about the book based on your larger individual comment to KL about picking the movie, so I hope it's clear that this comment is simply my POV and not in any way directed at you personally, but I admit I kind of resent how often new works are considered a "slap in the face" to creators of original works, and for me, part of the point of saying they should have the freedom to do whatever they want is specifically to reject that kind of thinking. An adaptation, while derivative, is ultimately a separate piece of art, and that art has its own rhythms and ideas which it should be serving first and foremost. Once people get into the idea that it is disrespectful simply to have another take on the material, I basically just tune out. Admittedly, this is largely because some 75% of the time "another take" actually means "we gave the women something to do this time" or "we cast some people who aren't white," and the people complaining are just sexist and/or racist. For me, my dislike of these complaints are also increased when creators are dead, because those people have a tendency to put words in the deceased mouth, such as Harold Ramis re: Ghostbusters (2016), despite his daughter explaining in her book about him that he wasn't that personally invested in what happened to the franchise and that he loved Bridesmaids, and that she felt he probably would've liked the remake. Not that it matters, since they have a tendency to make up conspiracy theories when creators are alive and endorse remakes and reboots (Bill Murray, also re: Ghostbusters). Now, to be clear, most art has some sort of message or philosophy, and given the book and film's touchy subject matter, there are definitely ways in which one could alter the text and be disrespectful to someone, whether that's Larsson or someone else. But I certainly don't think Fincher's Dragon Tattoo has a glib approach to the sexual violence, and I also have a hard time imagining making a Dragon Tattoo adaptation that is glib about sexual violence without some sort of actual malice involved. Ultimately, the two characters in the two adaptations are different, even though they're the same. They are in different versions of the same story and mean something else to the version of the story they're in. Maybe I'll agree that Fincher's Lisbeth (who I'm pretty sure I remember the Discord comments being about) isn't as cool as Oplev's. It won't make me think that Fincher's sucks; despite their comparative similarities, to me that's kind of like saying Luke Skywalker sucks because I like Marty McFly more. It's not really in my nature to compare them to each other.

Nathan Jasper

Name alone doesn't excuse how insulting the remake was to the characters. Got no beef with Rooney or Daniel, both are outstanding actors. Fincher and the studio are what ruined it.

HugoBoss435

I remember seeing this when it came out…it was a big deal that it was being adapted into a film. Me personally, I think I like the Daniel Craig version better… although to be fair I’ve also seen it more times than the original. That cast was phenomenal

Tyler Foster

Having watched it now, a couple of things I'll add: When you've mentioned these movies in the past it sounded like you felt you needed a rewatch, so you may not remember, but you would've seen lead actor Michael Nyqvist before as Viggo Tarasov, the Russian mob boss whose son Iosef kills John Wick's dog and steals his car in the first movie. One thing that might change your interpretation of the length of the Extended Cuts is that -- assuming the Blu-rays I have are labeled correctly, as this was my first time watching any version -- all three movies are actually reformatted into a six-episode miniseries, which each book getting two "episodes."

Tyler Foster

As far as this movie compared to the remake, I found them both to be pretty much equally satisfying. There are definitely some differences between the two just in what I can remember, and I imagine that if I actually sat down and rewatched the Fincher version right now there would be more minor changes and alterations that would stand out more, but I'm honestly a little perplexed by Nate's strong feelings about the original versus the remake. I think both are very good versions of this story, cast well, beautifully shot, tense, and engaging -- even though I knew the answer to the mystery already. Looking forward to watching the next two (which I'll probably be impatient and do on my own, and return to whenever you get around to them) to see if the story continues from where the American version left off -- this Swedish one stops at a point before where Fincher's stops, which is interesting. Whether that additional material was from the next book or not, I have no idea.

Movies with KL

I'm super excited to get to the remake later this year! I've got it noted down to get to.

Movies with KL

Strong feelings about something aren't always rational - Nate clearly has his reasons for not liking the remake and that's cool! You've got your own strong feelings about some movies too. I'm really excited to watch the remake knowing how many people enjoy it, including some friends that I've talked to about these movies. Very excited to see the differences for myself.

Arcee

Really glad for the excuse to rewatch these - I read the books sometimes, but only watched the films once before. They did a really good job, there are some unusual stylistic choices in the books (particularly #3) which they decided to avoid but overall felt they weren't afraid to let the story live, all too rare in adaptations. Sounds like I need to try the extendeds too! Also nice to see that subtitled films are workable for you!

Jonah D Jackson

Just to echo the sentiment expressed by others, I strongly encourage you to watch the whole *extended* series, even just on your own. It is not always an easy watch, but it is a uniquely compelling story.

Jonah D Jackson

Also, you may have already found them, but with respect to the availability issue, as someone else mentioned, the original Swedish title of this adaptation is "Man Som Hatar Kvinno" ("Men Who Hate Women"), which was a 6-part tv series of 90-minute episodes that were later repackaged into three "extended edition" movies. It was also called the "Millennium" series. You might try including those titles in your search too.

Paul Howard

Just to add to this, my understanding is the original Swedish title for the book was also "Män som hatar kvinnor" back in 2005. The change to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" came along later when the book was translated into English in 2008. As a result, the original Swedish film release kept the Swedish book title, but the international release used the English version.

Sam

Thank god you watched the original. The remake is awful—like, comically bad. Also, I am almost certain the original title for this is "men who hate women". I remember watching it when it came out, and I am sure that was the title.

Peter Eriksson

It allways feel a bit sad seing Michael Nyqvist here knowing he just was about getting a little bit of an hollywood career after this. Then kinda sudden get lungcanser and die. He had some roles in other big at home films. Knowadays you better be one of the Skarsgårds the be acting outside of sweden.