<p> Stieg Larsson\'s <em>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</em> was a bestseller in Sweden and a cult sensation everywhere else before becoming the first in a trilogy of exciting Swedish films and long before Hollywood announced a remake. Aside from a screenplay in English, there seemed to be no reason to redo <em>Dragon Tattoo</em> and every reason to suspect it would become a big-budget fiasco—except for David Fincher in the director\'s chair. His morbid sensibility (<em>Seven</em>, <em>Zodiac</em>) may well add rather than detract from the story. </p> <p>Meanwhile, as the weeks tick off toward the film\'s Dec. 21 release date, the Vintage Crime/Black Lizard publishers have put-out a paperback tie-in edition, giving those of us who knew the story from the movies reason to catch up with the rest of the reading public. The ostensible journalist-protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is obviously the author\'s fantasy alter ego—a willful man of integrity tilting his pen against corporate and political power. Patches of the writing are quite good in the efficient, rat-a-tat style of hardboiled crime fiction, and there is often acute psychological insight into the characters. On the other hand, the prose lapses into over-long journalistic digressions on Swedish law and social policy and clunky dialogue where backdrops and back-stories are established. In spite of this, Larsson\'s story is a page-turner, even if a few of the pages are turned over rapidly in the interest of recovering the fascinating plot. </p> <p>Whatever the authorial intentions, on film, Salander elbows Blomkvist from the picture and was probably the main factor in the success of the books. She is a sullen, anti-social anti-hero for our time, a damaged girl trying to locate integrity in a world where hypocrisy and cruelty are easier to find. </p>
