The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - this is the original Swedish version, not the Fincher remake (which I have yet to see - Fincher's usually good though!)  It follows an investigative journalist and a hacker-woman as they investigate an old cold case.  The film starts off establishing the hacker-lady as someone Not To Be Messed With by having her entrap and blackmail her abusive state-appointed guardian.  This establishes a sort of theme of women being exploited by powerful men.

The film is a pulpy mystery, involving Nazis and torture, websites and microfiche.  The uber-hacker-ness of the girl is undercut a tad by her calling up this disheveled guy to do all the hard bits for her, but I suppose this film isn't about female representation in hackery.  Anyway, she kicks plenty of ass herself.

So, I'm writing this from memory and I recall enjoying this film alright but it didn't leave much of an impression on me.  It's a sort of typical modern mystery film.  The protagonist being a spike-collared goth lady is novel, but apart from that there's the usual slow revelations and smattering of action sequences.  Good guys turn out to be bad.  Bad guys not so bad.  The usual.