The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I have not read any of the books by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson, nor have I seen any of the highly regarded Swedish film versions of the three installments in the late author’s Millenium series. But even though it’s likely an exercise in futility to recommend it to someone who saw the original adaptation, this rendition of the first book by director David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network) is on its own an engrossing, chilling and extremely satisfying crime film. Frozen Sweden is the setting. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) exiles himself from the spotlight in the snowy north of the country, taking a job writing the biography of a wealthy captain of industry who actually wants him to find out who among his family murdered his beloved niece. Eventually joining him on the investigation is Libeth Salander (Rooney Mara), the pierced and tattooed young woman of the title, who happens to be an expert researcher as well as a serious badass. The two hook up and their individual stories, and those of the messed-up characters whom they are investigating, slowly develop in this wonderfully paced, visually stunning and often disturbingly violent tale of cruelness and redemption. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.