Post by mikef6 on May 5, 2017 19:29:35 GMT
"Millennium" (2010). The murder mystery can (but rarely does) explore dark themes far beyond plot mechanics. What is the nature of violence? Where can it be found? What are these effects of violent crime on people? Even further, what is the nature of life, death and existence? A “whodunit” story can take a placid surface society and peel back the layers to the ugliness beneath – and also provide a suspenseful tale to keep us engrossed. When a mystery movie or novel or mini-series is working at the top of its game – as it is here – it gives us all these things.
A trio of mystery and suspense novels from Swedish writer Steig Larsson (1954-2004) rocked the literary world. His manuscripts were discovered and published after his death. They were almost immediately filmed in Sweden as three feature length films which were released world-wide in 2009. The next year, 2010, the films, with an additional two hours of material cut from the theatrical releases, were shown on Swedish TV as a mini-series of six 90-minute episodes under the title “Millennium” (aka The Extended Edition). This “extended edition” is what I am reviewing.
Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nykvist), an investigative journalist, is hired to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of the niece of a wealthy industrialist. His search leads him into a hunt for a serial killer whose roots may lie in Sweden’s Nazi past during WWII. The multi-generational plot is as labyrinthine as anything written by Ross MacDonald. But the main attraction is Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace with supreme concentration and laser focus. You can even see her brain working behind her eyes even while she is staring at a computer screen. Lisbeth, a Goth girl with a mysterious, violent past and no social skills, is also a master computer hacker but only the security firm who employs her is aware of this. When Lisbeth and Mikael finally meet up near the end of Episode One, we get a beautifully mis-matched couple and two heroes to really care about. One warning: you will need an upper middle level tolerance for screen violence, including a brutal rape (which is almost immediately avenged).
Episode Two ends with the death of a serial killer of Eastern European women trapped in sexual slavery. As Three opens, Blomkvist’s magazine in about to publish an expose of that human trafficking, but the two young researchers who are preparing the article are murdered. The killings are done in such a way as to cast heavy suspicion on Lisbeth. Lisbeth goes on the run follows the conspiracy’s trail though a path of bad guys, realizing that the murders and the frame-up relate to her own past but murky personal history. One of the things I really liked is that the best action sequence – and one of the best I have seen anywhere in a long, long time – is given to two relatively minor characters. Miriam (Yasmine Garbi), the female friend who is apartment sitting for Lisbeth and a martial arts trainer, Paolo (Paolo Roberto) who goes to try to get her to talk to Nykvist. These two are plunged into danger and it is a wonder to behold. In this era of stars making tens of millions of dollars for a movie and, thus, having to appear in every frame, it is absolutely brilliant to have two people who are almost passers-by and whose fate can always be in doubt have to fight for their lives. Very edge-of-the seat and truly breathtaking. The additional footage is easy to spot in the middle two episodes. In my original review of the feature film eight years ago, I wrote, “The journalist, played by Michael Nykvist, doesn’t have as much to do.” Well, in the “extended edition,” he has a lot to do as he investigates independently and tries to catch up with Lisbeth to help protect her.
The final two episodes are lighter on action than usual as Lisbeth Salander is in police custody for almost the entire run time. At first she is seriously injured and in the hospital, later in a jail cell and then on trial. But the thrills come in other ways, mainly with Mikael having to counter each move of a secret cabal who wants to silence Lisbeth, either by her death or institutionalized for life. However, episode five, made up mostly of questioning people and planning strategy, was the only one of the six in which I noticed that time was passing. I checked my watch several times, something I hadn’t done until this late chapter. But the last of the episodes which covers Lisbeth’s trial is another immersive, time-means-nothing experience. Only one of the high points is the screamingly funny and astonishing You-Can-Kiss-My-Goth-Butt message Lisbeth delivers to the legal system on the first day of her trial. Great adventure. An almost supernatural performance by Noomi Rapace. Highly, highly recommended.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo / David Fincher (2011). Now then. In the annuls of unnecessary remakes, this English language production of the first third of “Millennium” has to be near the top (or bottom, however you’re counting) of the list. One thing I can say for it, they went and did their own adaptation of Larsson’s book rather than depending on the Swedish film – quite unlike the scene-for-scene, if not shot-for-shot remakes, by the Coen’s (“True Grit”) and Martin Scorsese (“The Departed”) which have nothing creative or exciting about them that was not lifted whole from their original source material. Studios must calculate that putting currently popular and major directors at the helm of these re-makes will give them a certain cachet that will allow critics and fans to overlook a lack of originality. To start with the problems, then, with Fincher’s film, we have to examine Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Mara is a capable actress but cannot come up even a small percentage of the fire and intensity of Noomi Rapace. Where Noomi’s refusal to make eye contact is clearly an act of surly insolence, Mara just appears to be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Everything is, well, smaller in her performance. Even the dragon tattoo is only about a fourth the size of Noomi’s. But…Fincher has a major fan base in the U.S. so just about anything he does will make money and get amazing notices on movie message boards. I thought I needed to see this just to round out my “Millennium” journey; so…now I have and don't have to think about it again.
A trio of mystery and suspense novels from Swedish writer Steig Larsson (1954-2004) rocked the literary world. His manuscripts were discovered and published after his death. They were almost immediately filmed in Sweden as three feature length films which were released world-wide in 2009. The next year, 2010, the films, with an additional two hours of material cut from the theatrical releases, were shown on Swedish TV as a mini-series of six 90-minute episodes under the title “Millennium” (aka The Extended Edition). This “extended edition” is what I am reviewing.
Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nykvist), an investigative journalist, is hired to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of the niece of a wealthy industrialist. His search leads him into a hunt for a serial killer whose roots may lie in Sweden’s Nazi past during WWII. The multi-generational plot is as labyrinthine as anything written by Ross MacDonald. But the main attraction is Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace with supreme concentration and laser focus. You can even see her brain working behind her eyes even while she is staring at a computer screen. Lisbeth, a Goth girl with a mysterious, violent past and no social skills, is also a master computer hacker but only the security firm who employs her is aware of this. When Lisbeth and Mikael finally meet up near the end of Episode One, we get a beautifully mis-matched couple and two heroes to really care about. One warning: you will need an upper middle level tolerance for screen violence, including a brutal rape (which is almost immediately avenged).
Episode Two ends with the death of a serial killer of Eastern European women trapped in sexual slavery. As Three opens, Blomkvist’s magazine in about to publish an expose of that human trafficking, but the two young researchers who are preparing the article are murdered. The killings are done in such a way as to cast heavy suspicion on Lisbeth. Lisbeth goes on the run follows the conspiracy’s trail though a path of bad guys, realizing that the murders and the frame-up relate to her own past but murky personal history. One of the things I really liked is that the best action sequence – and one of the best I have seen anywhere in a long, long time – is given to two relatively minor characters. Miriam (Yasmine Garbi), the female friend who is apartment sitting for Lisbeth and a martial arts trainer, Paolo (Paolo Roberto) who goes to try to get her to talk to Nykvist. These two are plunged into danger and it is a wonder to behold. In this era of stars making tens of millions of dollars for a movie and, thus, having to appear in every frame, it is absolutely brilliant to have two people who are almost passers-by and whose fate can always be in doubt have to fight for their lives. Very edge-of-the seat and truly breathtaking. The additional footage is easy to spot in the middle two episodes. In my original review of the feature film eight years ago, I wrote, “The journalist, played by Michael Nykvist, doesn’t have as much to do.” Well, in the “extended edition,” he has a lot to do as he investigates independently and tries to catch up with Lisbeth to help protect her.
The final two episodes are lighter on action than usual as Lisbeth Salander is in police custody for almost the entire run time. At first she is seriously injured and in the hospital, later in a jail cell and then on trial. But the thrills come in other ways, mainly with Mikael having to counter each move of a secret cabal who wants to silence Lisbeth, either by her death or institutionalized for life. However, episode five, made up mostly of questioning people and planning strategy, was the only one of the six in which I noticed that time was passing. I checked my watch several times, something I hadn’t done until this late chapter. But the last of the episodes which covers Lisbeth’s trial is another immersive, time-means-nothing experience. Only one of the high points is the screamingly funny and astonishing You-Can-Kiss-My-Goth-Butt message Lisbeth delivers to the legal system on the first day of her trial. Great adventure. An almost supernatural performance by Noomi Rapace. Highly, highly recommended.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo / David Fincher (2011). Now then. In the annuls of unnecessary remakes, this English language production of the first third of “Millennium” has to be near the top (or bottom, however you’re counting) of the list. One thing I can say for it, they went and did their own adaptation of Larsson’s book rather than depending on the Swedish film – quite unlike the scene-for-scene, if not shot-for-shot remakes, by the Coen’s (“True Grit”) and Martin Scorsese (“The Departed”) which have nothing creative or exciting about them that was not lifted whole from their original source material. Studios must calculate that putting currently popular and major directors at the helm of these re-makes will give them a certain cachet that will allow critics and fans to overlook a lack of originality. To start with the problems, then, with Fincher’s film, we have to examine Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Mara is a capable actress but cannot come up even a small percentage of the fire and intensity of Noomi Rapace. Where Noomi’s refusal to make eye contact is clearly an act of surly insolence, Mara just appears to be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Everything is, well, smaller in her performance. Even the dragon tattoo is only about a fourth the size of Noomi’s. But…Fincher has a major fan base in the U.S. so just about anything he does will make money and get amazing notices on movie message boards. I thought I needed to see this just to round out my “Millennium” journey; so…now I have and don't have to think about it again.