Critic’s pick: ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is such a grown-up treat, a mesmerizing thriller that takes its time unlocking one mystery only to uncover another, all to immensely satisfying effect. Based on the first novel in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, Danish director Niels Arden Oplev found a way to adapt one of Europe’s most popular contemporary books, a bestselling sensation in the U.S. as well, and still infuse it with surprise. The bones of the story remain — the 40-year-old unsolved case of a missing girl, a disgraced financial journalist, and the enigmatic young private investigator with that exotic dragon on her back.

– Betsy Sharkey