^{© 2009 Stieg Larsson}

This is a great movie—could be the best foreign film of 2010 and much better than most of what Hollywood cranks out. Interestingly, many Hollywood mainstream elements are present: death, grisly violence, a car chase, crash, plenty of explicit sex, Nazis, and a few kinky characters. In short, it’s not what you’d expect of a Swedish film, except for the sex, subtitles and length.  At 2.5 hours, consider using the restroom facilities before taking your seat.

Plot-wise, Girl is a cold-case murder mystery that morphs into a serial killer thriller. The detectives, Michael, a middle-aged male investigative journalist and a 24 year-old female Internet hacker, Lisbeth, are complex people, each with their own issues. Lisbeth looks like a punk rock biker who seems to have a bad case of Asperger’s Syndrome. Unfortunately, her motorcycle was miscast; a weak one-banger that should have been a Ninja or a Duke. But that’s nitpicking. Almost every other nitty gritty detail in the film is technically flawless.

While some murder mystery movies feel like they could be stage plays, moving from one claustrophobic interior shot to the next, Girl has stretches of exterior work that emphasizes the stark beauty of rural Scandinavia. The downside of that landscape is how bad it will make you feel about the U.S.A.’s lack of world class rail service.

Like many murder mysteries, Girl has its share of false leads, misplaced suspicion and arcane clues. As the unsolved murder case turns into a serial killer hunt, the level of action is ratcheted up. The climax isn’t exactly what Bruckheimer would have done, but satisfying nonetheless. The wry denouement to the happy ending is decidedly non-European. While foreign art film aficionados may feel this is a sellout tailored to the American market, I didn’t miss the world-is-evil, life-is-tragic Euro-cliché ending one bit.