The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an American film adaptation directed by David Fincher of the first of a trilogy of novels by Stieg Larsson, a Swedish author. It stars Daniel Craig, better known as James Bond, as Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and publisher of a Swedish political magazine. Lured by the promise of information on a rival, Blomkvist begins to investigate a decades old murder case. He is soon joined by Lisbeth Salander, played by Rooney Mara. Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo, is a genius computer hacker who has clearly had a difficult life and is very unique in appearance as well as personality.

The action begins once Blomkvist and Salander meet to partner up.  They start to dig deeper into the seemingly dead-end case, and they begin to discover information that links the case to many more unsolved murders. With this new information, they set off to find the killer and reveal the truth of what happened to these victims.

As they continue their search, there are also side stories involving Blomkvist’s failing relationship and Salander’s sexual abuse at the hands of an authority figure. While not the main focus, these subtopics help explain each character, especially the way Salander is and how she became that way. Be warned, Salander goes through a traumatic and graphic sexual abuse scene that could be very hard for some to handle.

This film proves an adaptation of a book can be extremely accurate and successful in conveying the tone of its novel counterpart. While it takes some time to build and become interesting, once the film gets to that point, the viewer is  taken on an intense and captivating journey through past events and the lives of the people who are out to discover them.