Noomi Rapace – The Movie Gourmet

Prometheus: striking sci fi with a tinge of horror

June 17, 2012 by movie gourmet

Prometheus is a striking and well-acted sci fi adventure with a horror film tinge. What you want in a sci fi movie is cool alien worlds and cool alien creatures – and, for that, it’s hard to top director Ridley Scott, who made the classic sci fi thrillers Blade Runner and Alien (as well as Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Black Hawk Down).

In Prometheus, there is a space mission to find out if a species of aliens created us and returned to their world in another solar system. The mission successfully finds the answer, finds the aliens and finds some terrifyingly lethal space monsters.

Don’t think too much about the premise. The movie is a little ponderous when it drills down to the existential questions here. We’re far better off enjoying the cool visuals and just rooting for the good guys to escape the space monsters. And the space monsters are damn scary. The final sequence, however, makes the inevitable sequel all too obvious.

If you’re looking for a girl that can take a licking and keep on ticking, you can’t do any better than to cast Noomi Rapace, the star of the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. As the lead scientist on the mission, Rapace needs to survive a an impressive series of perils, including an alarming self-surgical procedure.

Michael Fassbinder is even better as an android with punctilious correctness and insincere charm, which some reviewers have compared to the computer Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Idris Elba (The Wire) is also notable because he plays the commander of the spaceship more as a tugboat captain than Captain Kirk. Guy Pearce plays the elderly mogul who is financing the mission; distractingly, he is apparently wearing the same makeup as Dustin Hoffman did to play 121-year-old Jack Crabb in Little Big Man.

Sci fi is not one of my favorite genres and I won’t recommend it as a “must see” to a general audience, but if you’re a sci fi fan, then by all means, see Prometheus.

3D or not 3D? If you’re gonna see Prometheus, I’d recommend forking over the premium and seeing it in 3D, especially for some scenes in which Fassbender’s android activates some floating holographic images in the alien HQ.

DVD of the Week: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

April 17, 2012 by movie gourmet

I loved the 2010 Swedish version (it was #8 on my list of the year’s best) and had very high hopes for this film by David Fincher (The Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club). Those hopes have been fulfilled and Dragon Tattoo made it on my list of Best Movies of 2011.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the first part of journalist-turned-novelist Stieg Larsson’s Milenium trilogy. The stories are centered on Larsson’s muckraker alter ego Mikael Blomkvist and the damaged and driven Goth hacker Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is only 90 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like relentlessness. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

In top rate performances, Daniel Craig plays Blomkvist and Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth. Lisbeth is the key to the movie, and Mara comes through with a compelling portrayal – stone faced until she explodes into a cyclone of wrath. The other characters are played superbly by Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright and Stephen Berkoff.

Fincher is still operating at his best. Remember – The Social Network is essentially about some annoying, immature geeks writing computer code and getting financing for a company – but Fincher made it rock! Fight Club‘s desperate violence and Zodiac‘s whodunit relentlessness translated directly to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So there couldn’t be a better director for this project than Fincher. I’m looking forward to his versions of the next two chapters in the saga.

Fincher shot the film in Sweden and had made the country look and feel unrelentingly frigid.

The score by Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is award-worthy and is a major contribution to the story.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Fincher keeps the thrill in “thriller”

December 28, 2011 by movie gourmet

I loved last year’s Swedish version (it was #8 on my list of the year’s best) and had very high hopes for this film by David Fincher (The Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club). Those hopes have been fulfilled.

Fincher shot the film in Sweden and had made the country look and feel unrelentingly frigid.

The score by Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is award worthy and is a major contribution to the story.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

October 31, 2010 by moviegourmet

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is an acceptable final chapter in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy and best as the showcase for Noomi Rapace’s final performance as Lisbeth Salander. If you’ve seen the first two movies, you should complete the trilogy by seeing this film.

Yet director Daniel Alfredson (who also directed the second film, The Girl Who Played With Fire) lets the film plod to its climax. Considering that Alfredson had a great page turner of a story and a singular performance from Rapace, it’s kind of amazing that he let his two movies drag.

This wasn’t a problem with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Opley. That movie popped off the screen. After Dragon Tattoo, I was worried that the Hollywood remakes would dumb down the story and soften Lisbeth. But now, I’m really looking forward to the American versions directed by David Fincher, and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. It’s easy to see how Fincher will improve the pacing of the second and third films in particular.

As with the first two films, Hornet’s Nest centers on Rapace’s Lisbeth, a tiny fury of a Goth hacker, damaged and driven. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

Hollywood's Lisbeth Salander

August 16, 2010 by moviegourmet

Well, here’s a surprise. In David Fincher’s upcoming film versions of the Stieg Larsson novels, Lisbeth Salander will be played by…Rooney Mara. 25-year-old Rooney Mara, sister of Kate, will play in Fincher’s The Social Network this October, so he must know something. She also has a few credits in TV guest slots, plus a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. She was also in Youth in Revolt, a nice little movie that I saw in January, but I have no memory of Rooney in it.

The entire success of the film trilogy depends on the portrayal of Lisbeth Salander. Is Rooney Mara a good choice? Right now, I’ll withhold judgement. It’s important to realize that Noomi Rapace, the actress who has so convincingly played Lisbeth in the Swedish versions, is not naturally a psycho hard ass – she undertook lots of preparation for the role, including six months of kick boxing AND a special diet AND the body piercings to harden herself for the role.

Noomi Rapace1 — Noomi Rapace not playing Lisbeth Salander

The Girl Who Played With Fire

August 2, 2010 by moviegourmet

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden): This is a highly entertaining follow-up to my personal favorite film of the year so far, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Again, the story revolves around Lisbeth Salander, the tiny woman with a lethal mix of damage and drive, played by the Swedish actress Noomi Rapace. Rapace’s Lisbeth is a tiny fury of a Goth hacker. At only 88 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like relentlessness. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even. As I have written before, Lisbeth Salander is the best new crime drama character since Helen Mirren’s Inspector Jane Tennyson.

In The Girl Who Plays With Fire, Lisbeth is framed for a triple murder. She must find The Real Killer while on the run, aided by a mostly independent investigation by her ally, journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Their parallel investigations lead to a villain much closer to Lisbeth than one could imagine. Plays with Fire has the structure of a detective procedural, but has the tone of a thriller.

Although I liked them both, I did prefer The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo to Plays With Fire. The Wife and two friends who had all read the books, strongly preferred Played with Fire to Dragon Tattoo. I don’t know whether this is a gender thing or whether people who know the story react to the movies differently. I generally enjoy major plot twists more when I don’t see them coming, and I have certainly found some big surprises in both Dragon Tattoo and Plays With Fire.

Plays With Fire is the second part of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, to be followed in October by The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

Hollywood's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

July 26, 2010 by moviegourmet

Daniel Craig — Hollywood's Mikael Blomkvist

There’s some good news about the upcoming Hollywood versions of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy. First, David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) will direct, and Fincher’s track record suggests that he is the perfect guy to pull this off.

Second, Hollywood is planning to make all three films (instead of just the first or compressing them into one movie).

Third, Entertainment Weekly reports that Daniel Craig will play Mikael Blomkvist. If you’ve seen the gritty British crime drama Layer Cake, you know that Craig can play the smart and understated Blomkvist.

Still, the success of the project depends on who will play Lisbeth Salander – and we still don’t know. My first choice is the Danish actress Noomi Rapace who has originated the role, and she speaks English well; but on the extra features of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo DVD, Rapace says that, after living with Lisbeth for 18 months of prep and filming, she is done with the character. Carey Mulligan has been quoted that it won’t be her, either. So we watch and wait.

Lisbeth Salander returns July 9

June 26, 2010 by moviegourmet

milenium3 — Spanish poster for the Stieg Larsson trilogy

Noomi Rapace reprises her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second part of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy. It follows one of my personal favorite films of the year, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Lisbeth Salander is the best new crime drama character since Helen Mirren’s Inspector Jane Tennyson. And Noomi Rapace creates a Lisbeth Salander who is a lethal mix of damage and drive. Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth, as a tiny fury of a Goth hacker, is only 90 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like relentlessness. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

When Hollywood remakes the film, it will not cast Noomi Rapace in the lead, so you’ll miss the film’s essential performance if you wait for the American version.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo only has about one more week to go in theaters, so you should see it now.

milenium1 — Scandanavian poster for the first film in the Stieg Larsson trilogy

Why I'm Pushing The Girl with Dragon Tattoo

April 15, 2010 by moviegourmet

This is the third straight week that I’ve been recommending The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I’ve gotten some initial resistance, primarily from women who have read the Stieg Larsson novel; one of those women went to the movie anyway and loved it. Here’s why you should see it before it leaves the theaters.

First, the movie is centered on Lisbeth Salander, the best new crime drama character since Helen Mirren’s Inspector Jane Tennyson. And Noomi Rapace creates a Lisbeth Salander who is a lethal mix of damage and drive. Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth, as a tiny fury of a Goth hacker, is only 90 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like relentlessness. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

Second, the Scandinavians have already made all three movies for the Stieg Larsson trilogy. They’re all in the can with the same stars. Movie #2 is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, which has already been released in Scandinavia and is in wider European release now. Movie #3 is The Girl Who Played With Fire, to be released in Scandinavia in September. American Stieg Larsson fans will be will be able to see all three movies soon, in theaters or on Netflix.

Third, Hollywood is going to remake this movie. I doubt that Hollywood is going to remake the whole trilogy, so this may be your only chance to see the trilogy. There are rumors about casting George Clooney or Brad Pitt, so male lead will likely be enhanced at the expense of the story. The movie will likely be dumbed down to make Lisbeth more of a stylized action hero . And, of course, Hollywood is not going to cast Noomi Rapace in the lead, so you would miss the film’s essential performance.