Christmas Countdown: Top 25 Movies of 2010 – No.25

Okay folks it’s back and it’s bigger the same length as last year’s! 25 days till Christmas so it’s time to countdown the Top 25 Movies of 2010. The rules are the same too:

The film must have been released in Ireland during the calendar year 2010; This list is entirely based on my own opinion therefore I must have seen the film; Films from December 2010 are exempt from inclusion as the list was finalised on November 30th; I reserve the right to include any film released in December in the listing after all 25 have been revealed.

So kicking off this snowy festive season is…

The twenty-fifth best movie this year is a puzzling one for me. I thought long and hard about placing this higher as I knew that it had to be in here, but some of the flaws meant that when I finally finalised the order of the 25 it fell to last place. Based on the first book of the Millennium trilogy from Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo tells the story of disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, spunky computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, who are tasked by a rich families patriarch to investigate the disappearance of a favoured niece many years before. What they actually discover is a plot more sinister than either could ever have imagined…

Why it’s worthy: TGWTDT stands as a testament to how to adapt a book properly for the big screen, and for that reason alone it’s worthy. Reason two is Lisbeth, who is easily one of the finest female characters the screen has seen in a long time. Naomi Rapace’s portrayal of this emotional scarred, yet strong and determined woman is a revelation. The visual look and feel of this film is amazing. Mikael is a bit dull, but that’s no harm as it allows Rapace room to breathe. It also makes for an interesting, strange yet forceful sexual tension between the two. Each carries war wounds from previous relations, one more so than the other but when they turn to each other for companionship it’s believable and real. The movie makes great use of the sparse Swedish countryside to conjure up feelings of isolation and despair. The subject matter aids this feeling, but the resolution and a number of interspersed more upbeat scenes break the monotony of doom and gloom before it becomes suffocating.

Fatal flaws: TGWTDT’s biggest failing is in its length, trying to include the many plot strands of the book has left the movie a bloated, lumbering beast. As I mentioned above it’s a great adaptation but it’s faithfulness leaves it a tad too long. A good editor could have shaved about 30 minutes from the running time and made a tauter, more driven movie, without sacrificing the actual story. The second half of the movie is not quite as good as the first as it turns into a somewhat formulaic detective story. That causes a strange juxtaposition of style, with the spunky neo-noir aspects of Lisbeth’s stylish heroine clashing with the more sedate and rural everyman of Mikael. As a result it kind of falls between two stools, on one hand a mystery-thriller, on the other a stylish noir detective drama. There’s more than one scene here that will leave you uneasy. There use is absolutely required in terms of the original story and the movies plot, but still they can be rough viewing. I’m not going to get into the sexism/feminism aspect of it as others are better equipped for that suffice to say that the Swedish title of the book translates as “Men Who Hate Women”.

Verdict: Ultimately the movie is a grand cinematic adventure, often-times harrowing, often-times desperate, but always compelling. A great character-driven story with strong performances and stunning visuals The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is definitely one of the best 25 movies of 2010.