Män som hatar kvinnor (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009)

If they'd kept the original Swedish title ('Men Who Hate Women') of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it might have aptly summarised the heart of the matter in Stieg Larsson's blockbusting crime novel, but with hindsight would probably have been commercial suicide.
Nevertheless, particularly as time constraints have clearly forced the film to do away with much of the novel's corporate intrigues, a lot of woman-hating is what we get. Initially, it's against the person of Lisbeth Salander, a punky computer hacker who's very damaged goods, and then in a wider sense against a wider swathe of the Swedish female populace, as a serial killer story unfolds.
This might otherwise be another Von Trieresque piece, with a male Scandinavian director showing his empathy for women by having society shit mercilessly on them. What makes it more palatable is that Lisbeth refuses to be a victim, and the momentum for her revenge on her persecutors becomes inexorable. It helps a lot that Noomi Rapace proves a strong choice for the role, and that the location choices in particular are immaculate, and if Larsson's clear casting of himself as the middle-aged male lead Mikael Blomkvist, the writer thereby having his cake and eating it, survives through a tad too intact from the source, it's still an easy 2½ hours, boding well for the equally hefty sequels.

7/10