the girl with the dragon tattoo – sweden (2009)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I was a bit wary of watching this film at first because I had enjoyed the book so much (as per my review) and we all know how disappointing adaptations can be.  However, I’d heard good things, and at least it was a Swedish film, so I gave it a go a few weeks ago (yes, and have only just got around to reviewing it!)

I must admit, it makes a pretty good film.  the girl playing Salander is very believable and grungy (which is twice as amazing when you see how gorgeous the actress usually looks), and Blomkvist feels right too.

However, I watched it with The Man and I found that I was having to explain quite a few bits to him that I only knew from reading the book.  The film felt slightly shallow.  I was quite shocked that Erika Berger was shown in the film, and yet not even named, and the relationship between her and Blomkvist went completely unexplained.

Saying that, The Man didn’t feel cheated of any story, and has said that he’ll probably read the books now.

It’s a great story, and it’s a good film.  I will definitely watch the other two.  However, it wasn’t a patch on the book – so probably best to watch BEFORE reading it!  I’d be very interested to know if anyone else felt that some of the vital elements of the plot were missing, or glossed over.

My rating 8/10

the girl who kicked the hornet’s nest – stieg larsson

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

It feels like ages since I finished a book.  I started reading The Famished Road by Ben Okri as part of my Reading Group with the library, but got 40% through (according to my Kindle) and just had to stop, as I simply couldn’t get through it, and having to keep picking it up and persevere was depressing me!

So, I picked up The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest as that had been sitting on my ‘To Read’ pile for quite a while.

Seeing as I enjoyed The Girl Who Played With Fire so much, and the fact that it ends with everything so up in the air, I guess it’s a bit odd that I hadn’t got around to reading it before now as I had it sitting around.  However, the Millennium books are all actually rather big and can be a bit daunting/cumbersome for my relatively short tube journey

I’m glad I finished the trilogy though – it was another fast-paced, action-packed., hugely enjoyable romp.  However, although I was really drawn in with the whole tying the loose ends procedure, there were more things about this book that niggled me.

The first two books had a huge cast of characters, but this one includes all of the previous ones and introduces a whole load of new ones, and I found it rather overwhelming.  There were just so many people that I found it hard to keep up with who was who – and sometimes their first names were used, and sometimes their surnames – and so many names were so similar (as I think is typical in Scandinavia) and I often got lost with who was talking/referring to who!

I also got a bit annoyed with a whole plotline concerning Erika Berger, who was always shown to be this strong, switched-on woman, and yet the whole plot relies on the fact that she’s had the wool pulled over her eyes by a couple of people.  It just doesn’t ring true for this character that has been built up over the previous two books.

However, the small negatives didn’t detract from the fact that it was an intensely enjoyable book, and a fitting end to the trilogy storyline.  I highly recommend!