Millénium, le film

Ça faisait bien, bien longtemps que je n’avais pas vu un film policier passionnant comme celui-ci. En France, Stig Larsson est incroyablement populaire, ce qui fait qu’une telle adaptation cinématographique a assez vite fait de se retrouver à l’affiche. Je n’ai pas lu le modèle littéraire, mais comme le film est vraiment riche en matière d’intrigue, je suppose qu’il s’agit d’un travail de bonne facture. Tout en contraste, les deux personnages du duo central m’ont immédiatement conquis par leurs airs sympathiques. Quelques scènes étaient assez crues, mais bon, avec le cinéma nordique, on ne s’en offusquera pas. J’ai hâte de me procurer la deuxième partie dans sa forme livresque pour agrémenter mes chaudes soirées d’été ! :-) (06/07/2009)

Structure de thriller traditionnelle des films hollywoodiens, rafraîchie par les visages inconnus de bons acteurs européens et minutieusement analysée par un scénario multicouche excellent qui traite de plus de choses qu'il n'est nécessaire pour un bon thriller - et réussit à gérer cela de manière respectable et complexe. Deux heures et demie pleines de tension, de découverte de personnages intéressants et de révélation des secrets cachés du monde sombre. J'attends avec impatience les deux autres films de la trilogie de l'écrivain Stieg Larsson, dont le scénario est basé sur son roman, et je suis curieux du remake américain. David Fincher est un choix judicieux, il est le seul à pouvoir le réussir. (12/07/2010)

I didn’t read the novels and haven’t watched the other two parts of the trilogy yet, so I don’t know whether some of the apparently pointless things in this film will have any meaning in the future, but the fact is that they feel very redundant within the scope of one feature detective movie. That said, I believe in the principle that I call “pointless things happen” (not all the events that simultaneously take place in real life are important for the main event taking place, therefore, they too should be included in scripts – i.e. they don’t have to be directly causal), and as such, that relatively redundant affair with Lisbeth’s caretaker didn’t bother me at all. If the film had finished half hour earlier, I would give it five stars, but that pointless epilogue brought the rating down a point. (23/08/2010)

The whole trilogy is more or less about a girl who makes no compromises. Never and nowhere. And about a journalist who also makes no compromises in his professional life, unlike in his personal life. Never and nowhere. The whole trilogy is a feet-up watch which won’t make you want to put your feet up even a long time after reading it. And it’s adapted in a movie that makes compromises everywhere and in everything and it’s no problem to take a quick nap during it. Although part one is certainly the most difficult to adapt of the entire trilogy, the number of storylines being murderous. Oplev fails in not being able to decide whether to cut back the wealth of material in the book, just leaving the thrilleroid element or not. It would have been a shame, but it’s nigh on impossible to transfer what’s “extra" onto the screen. Where it flounders is that it includes a little of everything, but everything is just touched upon and nothing is investigated in depth, so it all just fizzles out. Which is a shame because those “post-Lingren" characters are crying out for a quality adaptation. But what is almost unbelievable is the casting of Lisbeth; I couldn’t believe it would be possible to cast her so that she both looks the part and can act too. Too bad the same can’t be said of Blomkvist. P.S.: I saw the movie before reading the book and even after doing so the overall impression was basically identical in both cases. (16/11/2009)

I've started reading the book, the film was first... despite the fact that in its complexity it cannot and does not want to match Larsson's juggernaut, it belongs in the top league given its atmosphere and processing. Oplev is an excellent stylist who films in a simplified form, but with a sense of logic and pace. I really, really like how the script cleverly shifted Mikael from a confident seducer to a closed weirdo – the Rapace/Nyqvist duet is absolutely excellent for the film's purposes. By the way, Noomi is extraordinarily charismatic and played Lisbeth perfectly. The film has very high quality equivalent for everything that it lacks from the book. The result is a contagious and catchy detective story... although it lacks the socially critical dimension of the original, it moves in its genre quite sovereignly. It's a very difficult challenge for Fincher... (20/07/2010)