"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" movie reviews

The Swedish film version of bestselling novel "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" has finally arrived in the US.

She's here! The eagerly awaited Swedish visitor has finally arrived. American fans of Lisbeth Salander, star of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" novel – and the entire Millennium trilogy – by Swedish author Stieg Larsson have been counting the days till the Swedish film would open in the US. And now it's here.

So far, critics have – mostly – been very kind to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Here's what a few of them have to say:

The Los Angeles Times: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is "a mind-bending and mesmerizing thriller that takes its time unlocking one mystery only to uncover another, all to chilling and immensely satisfying effect."

The Washington Post: "It's the rare 2 1/2 -hour film that doesn't make you look at your watch once. 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' is such a film.... like a good book, the plot is so engrossing, the characters so rich and complex, the mood of gloom mixed with glimmers of hope so all-encompassing that the thought of its actually ending never occurs to you.... For fans of the thriller genre, it's also one heck of a lot of fun."

The New York Times: "[Lisbeth Salander is] a less disquieting presence in the movie (a protracted 152 minutes), which was competently, sometimes ploddingly directed by Niels Arden Oplev and written by Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel..... To retrofit 'Dragon Tattoo' for the screen, the writers have ditched plot details and characters even as they’ve lifted crucial material from its sequel, 'The Girl Who Played With Fire.' These incendiary visuals, borrowed from Salander’s childhood, make the glib case for why she’s such a head case."

The Boston Globe: "It’s easy to forget how dissatisfying so much Hollywood trash is until you see a good imported version.... the movies rarely gives us a woman as fascinatingly complex as Lisbeth Salander, and the happiest news about the two sequels is that she’ll be back."

The Boston Herald: "If you liked 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'The Silence of the Lambs,' you’ll love this stylish Nordic hybrid. Although many will guess the final twist, it’s not an issue. Like all great tales of evil, 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' keeps you in its terrible, thrilling grip from beginning to end. Get a load of this 'Girl.' "

Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor's book editor.

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