After losing a high profile libel case, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is plucked out to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vangar 40 years after her disappearance. His search is aided by Lisbeth Salandar (Noomi Rapace) , a punk, cyber geek with a troubled past who had been tracking through hacking his investigations. Mayhem and intrigue follow from there through the depths of a Swedish winter.

Based on the book by Stieg Larsson (the first of a trilogy), Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a violent but engrossing and entertaining thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Rapace is terrific and increasingly steals the show as her character’s dysfunctional past and present get revealed. The many, often conflicting, facets of her personality get well drawn even if by the film’s end we feel we don’t much know her still. The Blomkvist character lacks development as to his motivations and history but together they make an engaging team who by one means or another come to understand how the other works best.

At 2 ½ hours, viewing could have been a struggle but the pace and tension is sustained, the cinematography is superb and the violence, while at moments graphic, adds meaning to both characters and story rather than being gratuitous. At times, the story does rely on big time coincidences that make you feel you are watching Law & Order – Criminal Intent but one quickly is moved on to see how it all plays out.

Those who have read the book may find the treatment unsatisfying but such is always the case with films drawn from novels, especially complex ones. But as a standalone film, this is a high quality thriller justifying its moniker as Nordic’s highest grossing local movie.