When I speak to people who have read the book, they have said that the American version is more faithful to the book. I love Daniel Craig & Fincher! I think that all the actors in both movies are great & have no preference for one set of actors over the other. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US) is a good movie and clearer on some points than the Swedish version. I was not thrilled by US version’s weird Bondesque opening credits. With that said, for now, I prefer the Swedish version over The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US), but probably because it is not faithful to the book. I think that the American version will probably be better for the second and third book because the Swedish versions left a lot of room for improvement.
I prefer the Swedish version for a few of reasons. First, pacing! The Swedish movie brought the past to life, particularly the numerous serial killer victims (US version kind of listed them & kept them two dimensional on paper instead of revisiting the original scene of the crime), & made research scintillating. I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath at the way that revelations kept escallating. I loved how it portrayed Lisbeth & Mikael as two sides of the same coin & how they virtually collaborated from the beginning of the movie. Lisbeth was the post modern side: using technology & unorthodox, illegal methods. Mikael was the old school journalist: interviews, archive research & lots of social interaction.
In the American version, there is plenty of parallel storytelling of Lisbeth & Mikael, but they aren’t working in tandem, but are juxtaposed to show that they are two lone wolves. Lisbeth story focuses on helping the audience understand why her life is messed up & she is so angry. Mikael has a more conventional narrative as he tried to solve the family mystery & keep his life afloat after his guilty verdict.
Second, I don’t like the romanticized ending for Lisbeth in the American version. She finally found a good man, thought that she made a connection & is disappointed that he blew her off for the conventional married woman. No wonder she is angry! That’s not the Lisbeth that I know & love. I don’t mean to generalize about Europeans, but I have seen enough European movies to prefer the Swedish version.
In the Swedish version, Lisbeth sleeps with Mikael because he is the only available warm body on that cold island. She doesn’t care if the available body is a man or a woman. She is just living her life & isn’t mooning over him as a romantic partner or even a friend. She cares about the work. Mikael is surprised by her frank & abrupt approach, but is quite pleased with the offer of sex as he would be if she offered tea. Consensual sex is just another aspect of life and isn’t given as much weight as the work relationship. If you want to interpret it morally, because of all the abuse that she suffered and her inability to make normal connections with people, she uses sex as a way to make a connection, but lacks the capacity or desire to translate the physical to the emotional except with her original guardian, first person who shows her kindness. By the 3rd Swedish movie, she doesn’t know what to do with Mikael despite all that has passed between them. At this point, I felt like Mikael was ready to make more of a connection, but was equally unable to do so for different reasons.
Third and irrationally, I was more emotionally invested in the Swedish version because it was the first one that I saw, and there was a delay between seeing what was going on & hearing the tone of voices before the reading the translation so it heightened your fear. The basement scene with Mikael and Martin just terrified me, but in the American version, hearing the lines in English sound a bit more typical, sinister, serial killer fare. I could be wrong, but I also think that the Swedish version was more unflinching about how sick the entire family was & it was slightly toned down for the American version. Gibson’s The Passion kind of ruined movies where people speak in English but with a British accent or a fake accent from whatever country they are supposed to be in.