‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

So no matter how good the English-language remake of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" turns out to be — it’s in development now — it’s not going to be the Swedish original, based on the late Stieg Larsson’s international best-seller.

Different, inevitably. Just as good, we hope.

A best-case scenario would echo what happened when director Martin Scorsese transformed the intriguing Hong Kong thriller "Infernal Affairs" into the equally intriguing, Oscar-winning thriller "The Departed."

But for every "Magnificent Seven" (a rousing, but in no way equal, revamp of Akira Kurosawa’s classic "Seven Samurai") or "The Birdcage" (fun, but no competition for the original "La Cage aux Folles"), there’s a disastrous translation. (Take the Madonna-Guy Ritchie remake of Lina Wertmuller’s provocative "Swept Away" — please.)

All of which means that if you love a good thriller — especially one with more on its mind than mere thrills — then you shouldn’t let "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" be the one that got away.

Inevitably, a few subtleties will escape the non-Swedish speakers among us. Yet most of what happens in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is gut-punchingly clear from the get-go, subtitles or no subtitles.

Initially, the movie follows two parallel tracks.

One involves investigative journalist Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist ), who’s just been convicted of libeling a Swedish tycoon — and has six months before his prison term begins.

Blomqvist suspects he’s been set up. So does "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s" title character: goth computer hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace ), who in her short life has endured more than her share of trauma.

And the hits just keep on coming, especially from Lisbeth’s probation officer (Peter Andersson ), whose abuses prompt a fierce and furious reaction.

Lisbeth works for a security firm that’s been hired to check on Blomqvist’s background for an aging industrialist (Sven-Bertil Taube), who wants the dogged journalist to investigate the disappearance of his beloved niece.

She vanished from the family’s island compound 40 years before and is presumed dead, presumably at the hands of one of her avaricious — and just plain vicious — relatives.

With his career in tatters and a prison term looming, Blomqvist embraces the prospect an extended stay on an isolated island chasing decades-old clues to an unsolved (and possibly unsolvable) mystery.

But he finds an unexpected ally in Lisbeth, who’s still hacking his computer — and unravels a key bit of evidence that’s stumped him so far.

Together, they make an unlikely but formidable team — especially when they get a bit too close to the truth for someone’s continuing comfort.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s" original Swedish title, "Men Who Hate Women," tells you pretty much all you need to know about the movie’s unflinching focus.

It’s not what you’d call pretty, but it’s undeniably compelling.

That’s because director Niels Arden Oplev and screenwriters Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg embrace, rather than erase, the tale’s narrative and thematic complexities.

They trust that the material will grab audiences. (They’re right.) They also trust that audiences will stick with the characters, who have a lot more on their minds than figuring out whodunit. (Right again.)

Deploying photographs, computer screens and other evidence, Oplev brings considerable visual flair to what could have been static sit-and-click action.

The movie’s gloomy Scandinavian setting helps considerably.

So do the contrasting, yet complementary protagonists, who are equally world-weary, but react to their situations in very different ways.

Nykvist captures Blomkvist’s wry resignation with quiet but undeniable determination. And Rapace — pierced, tattooed, a walking live wire who can’t help but throw sparks in every direction, no matter which direction she turns — gives Lisbeth enough ferocious intelligence and intensity to power several movies.

That’s just as well, considering that Larsson wrote two more novels featuring Salander and Blomqvist before his 2004 death at the age of 44.

The Swedish movie versions already have reunited Rapace and Nykvist.

With any luck, we’ll get the chance to see them, too. Maybe even before Hollywood has the chance to muck them up.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.