Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (18)*****

A top investigative journalist, set up by a giant corporation and sentenced to a jail term, is presented with an extraordinary offer before he has to go to prison. Hired by an elderly millionaire, he must solve the 40-year-old mystery of a young girl's disappearance.

Watching his every move is a computer hacker par excellence – a girl with a magnificent dragon tattoo on her back. Together, this mis-matched duo will embark upon a deadly journey that unearths a series of terrible religious killings dating back half a century.

Slowly, methodically, they draw together the threads of a decadent, evil family secret.

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Based on the runaway bestsellers by Stieg Larsson, this exceptional, mighty thriller keeps its audience guessing via a labyrinthine plot that never falters. Similar in style to Harlan Coben's Tell No One (given cinematic power by Guillaume Canet), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a persuasive, carrot-and-stick slice of modern noir that is clearly destined for a lacklustre American remake.

Yet this is pretty near perfect. The pairing of weary Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nykvist) and punky Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) provides the heat in this Scandinavian chiller as burned-out hack and damaged hacker find more than just common ground.

There is an edgy sensuality that balances the sadism at the diseased heart of this unsettling tale. Director Niels Arden Oplev gives an early hint at Lisbeth's guarded back story when he outlines, with unapologetic starkness, the abuse she receives from her probation officer.

Her revenge is portrayed with equal bleakness and no cheering from the sidelines. She is pitiless, enraged and very disturbed.

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Fans of Coben, Thomas Harris and Robert Bloch will see a kindred spirit in the late Larsson, for this is a superb descent into a pit of horror. A non-stop, frenetic combination of buddy movie, serial killer flick and dark historical passion play, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo raises the bar to impossible heights.

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