The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo(Män som hatar kvinnor)

Variety by

More of an action-light whodunit than a real thriller, and more of a CliffsNotes version than a deeply disturbing portrait of what's wrong with contempo Sweden.

Time Out by David Fear

Every so often, you get the gift of watching an under-the-radar actor bloom into a critical-mass phenomenon before your bloodshot eyes: Franka Potente in "Run Lola Run," or Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds." Add Noomi Rapace to the list; what she does with the title character of this Swedish thriller-cum-pop-lit-adaptation will spawn cults of swooning Rapacephiles stat.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

The cluttered narrative leaves little room for character development, though director Niels Arden Oplev does manage to accommodate plenty of gratuitous torture and rape.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

The film makes excellent use of the cold Scandinavian landscape to emphasize the story's gloomy loneliness. And Rapace and ? Nyqvist have compelling chemistry.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips

The film version stars a wonderful Swedish-Icelandic actress named Noomi Rapace as the hacker and Michael Nyqvist as the reporter. They are excellent and subtle and honest.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

A compelling thriller to begin with, but it adds the rare quality of having a heroine more fascinating than the story.

The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden

The result is a character-driven mystery of considerable emotional power, often harrowing and always compelling.

The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson

Tattoo is as much mood piece as mystery, and the mood is almost always disturbing.