Monday 23 August 2010

Film review time...


The rabbit has been to the cinema on two consecutive Saturdays. The first cinematic excursion was to see the latest Leonardo Di Caprio vehicle, Inception. Here follows a short rabbit review:
Don't. Bother. It's. Bollocks.
Trust this clarifies matters.
I had wondered if it was a generational thing, but the rabbit's companions for the evening included a 23 year old and he was bored by it too. The rabbit managed to fall asleep half way through the film, which was quite an achievement as it is noisy in the extreme.
The rabbit was a bit slow out of the blocks in catching his second cinema experience last Saturday, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This film is not bollocks. It is about as unbollocks as you can get. The still above is the splendidly named Noomi Rapace as the tattoed one. The film is in Swedish and is with subtitles. It doesn't matter. By way of brief background, the film is adapted from the first of a trilogy of crime novels by Stieg Larsson who died aged 50 in 2004 having left behind three completed but unpublished manuscripts. Of course they were published posthumously and were a huge commercial success. Unsurprisingly an ugly brawl over his estate arose but that's by the by. I'm told by someone that the book of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is better than the film. In which case it must be seriously good. I shall investigate.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (film version) was a huge success in continental Europe before being released in England in (I think) March so the rabbit was abit slow out of the blocks as regards seeing it in the cinema. The second and third parts of the trilogy have already been filmed and, after testing the waters with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the second part of the trilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire is about to be released. A slightly (and unfairly) sniffy review in the Guardian summarises the film as 'a forensic procedural with explicit violence, sex, sexual violence, violent sex and crime-scene photos of the sort that were once never shown, then just glimpsed and now blandly (sic) lingered over in every detail' It's - well - forensic and maybe the rabbit's work hardens him to the kind of thing complained of but - although violence against women is a difficult subject for fiction - this is a work of high quality and merits more than the kind of approach exemplified in the quote.
So as a non-spoiling (go and see it!) summary, the plot goes something like this: Michael Blomkvist is a reporter facing jail time (wrongfully) for criminal libel. He is hired by a wealthy industrialist to solve the mystery of a niece who disappeared, presumed murdered, in 1966. By a somewhat contrived device, Blomkvist was babysat by the missing niece. He sets about investigating the seemingly impenetrable mystery of the niece's disappearnce and uncovers a string of hate crimes, teams up with an emotionally troubled but beautiful computer hacker called Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace), the tattooed girl of the title. As to the rest, as I said, go see it.
To totally change the mood and because it came to mind, here is the Beach Boys' Surfer Girl - a summery sound for a summer that, at least here, started off very promisingly but failed to really deliver. And now there's not much more left of it. Almost time to get out the raincoats.

9 comments:

Catch Her in the Wry said...

I thoroughly enjoyed Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. There was so much depth in it and just enough information about the characters to keep you begging for more of the back story. Apparently there is an American version of it in the works, but I doubt it will be as good as the original.

Noomi Rapace was fantastic in the lead role.

Verdant Earl said...

I loved The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Perfect movie. Weird that an American version (with an international cast) is being made so soon afterward. But Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgard and Robin Wright should make it interesting. Plus David Fincher directing. And Rooney Mara as the titular heroine is a newcomer, but she looks the part a bit.

tony said...

Youve Been told Right.The Book is far far better than the Film.I was slightly disapointed with the film having read the book first .
Strange really, i usually prefer to read -it before viewing - it: for some reason this didnt work with this one.Maybe its because they had to leave aa unusual amount of detail out..........?
Anyway , im looking forward to the new film.

savannah said...

spot on with both reviews, sugar! inception was just ok for me, i was more impressed when the director didn't use cgi for effects! but, i'm jaded that way. re: the girl with the dragon tattoo, i saw it on netflix recently after reading the book ages ago and LOVED the film version. the MITM hated the book but loved the film. but then he was massively impressed by inception (on a philosophical level as he said...) xoxoxo

Petit fleur said...

Thanks for the tip on the Dragon Girl. I have read other good reviews about it.

Can't do Beach Boys though. I worked at a restaurant that had them in a pretty much non stop tape loop... sigh. I run when I hear them now.

I know TMI.
Happy week. pf

JoJo said...

Can't sit still long enough & pay attention to subtitles, so Dragon Girl is out. I've only heard good things from people of all ages on Inception. My boss and his wife loved it, even though they didn't really get it.

I'm with you PF, I cannot stand the Beach Boys. Now they are promoting a 'Dennis Wilson does Gershwin' songs and it sounds awful.

sybil law said...

I haven't read the 3rd book in the trilogy, yet - but the books really are excellent.
Now I am dying to see the movie!!

The Dental Maven said...

I started reading the Dragon Tattoo story and put it down after 50 pages. But everyone I speak to says it really gets going after that...of course. Ahh me. Perhaps I'll pick it up again. And Rabbit...so sorry your summer didn't deliver!!

white rabbit said...

All - What a cultured lot you are!

In rerum Beach Boys - Well if you are a small boy in the north of England and 'I Get Around' comes on the ancient crackly radio...

It was just one of those 'WHAT???' moments - okay it was the first of them - a whole new world is conjured up.