The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I first saw this Swedish film a couple of years back. I had been watching the other Swedish series ‘Wallander’ on TV and while looking for information about it we came across the Stieg Larsson trilogy that was turned into films. Recently the English version was released and I also acquired the novel itself. I know it might sound strange that I am kind of reviewing all three together – 2 films and the book.

This story starts as a couple of different strands – one where a financial journalist, Mikeal Blomkvist, has been found guilty of libel. He is unable to divulge his source as he finds that he has been supplied with fake evidence. The other strand is Lisbeth Salandar, who is an IT geek and an extremely talented one. She is employed by a security company that also takes on private investigations into people’s background. Lisbeth has been profiling Blomkvist for an industrialist. On the basis of this report Henrik Vanger, the industrialist, offers Blomkvist a job to find out what happened to his great niece. Harriet had disappeared at the age of 16 over 40 years ago. He is convinced, along with the inspector who handled the case of disappearance, that she had been murdered and most likely by someone in the family. The background to the case that Blomkvist lost is discussed in detail in the book and not in either of the films. It provides a better understanding of the whole case and why Blomkvist was unable to defend himself. The 3 month jail sentence was carried out in the Swedish film and of course in the book.

The story is actually very dark and not a comfortable watch / read at times. Blomkvist takes up Vanger’s job offer and the cover he is to use is that Vanger wants him to write the family history. There are boxes of records that have been maintained by Vanger and both he and Inspector Morell cannot seem to forget the mystery of Harriet. At first Blomkvist does not find anything which points to new evidence or even a new line of thought. There are snippets of newspaper cutting, police notes, diaries and pictures which all point to in effect a closed room mystery, as the island was cut off due to an accident on the only connecting bridge for nearly 24 hours, at the time of Harriet’s disappearance.

Meanwhile Lisbeth is shown to have problems with her new legal guardian as the old one had a stroke. The book gives a detailed description of Lisbeth’s current situation and the fact that the new guardian begins to use his position of power to sexually abuse her. While I might not agree with her response to it morally I would applaud her courage to defend herself. In this book it becomes clear that she is a troubled young lady who has no one and relies on no one but there is not enough of her background to actually know why she is like this. She is certainly gifted and talented with photographic memory, ability to see the wider picture when confronted with complex data but with limited social skills.

Eventually Lisbeth’s and Blomkvist’s path come together and he has to hire her to do some investigating with regards to finding out what Harriet was up to when she disappeared. By chance he finds the real meaning of the list of names and figures which have so far been thought of as phone numbers. This starts them into a totally new line of inquiry and is much darker and violent than anyone anticipated. The Swedish film was much more true to the book than the English version. Both the films did hold me in one place and we never even paused the film to have a quick break. The book was actually a lot longer than the films as the thoughts, feelings and background to every player in this drama has been superbly described by the author. I have seen the other movies of the trilogy in Swedish and also will be reading those books and then write the reviews. The ending is unexpected and again the details are much more elaborate in the book with a change of fortune for Blomkvist and Lisbeth to some extent.

The Guns of Navaronne by Alistair MacLean

I had read this book over 30 years ago as it was a part of my Alistair MacLean collection. I was always fascinated by the characters in the story and enjoyed reading it many times. After I left home my parents got rid of my collection and I lost touch with all the old ‘friends’. I finally got all these old books again and read these books once more. It was such a joy to meet old friends. In the intervening years I had seen the movie of The Guns of Navaronne on TV almost every year. Since my memory of the original story had dimmed I had only vaguely remembered the changes that are in the film as one generally cannot stay true to the original details of the story.

The team is a bunch of the top professionals in various combat fields sent to silence the big Guns of Navaronne. These guns are on a small Greek Island now under the German control. These guarded the straits which formed a passage for ships and were a thorn in the allied forces side. The British wanted to evacuate a nearby island before the Germans got there and this was not possible while the guns of Navaronne were intact. The journey to the island was fast and furtive. On reaching the island they had to climb the massive cliff for which the team leader Captain Mallory was ably qualified as he was the famous mountaineer from New Zealand. His second in command was a Greek Colonel, a giant, called Andrea who also had a very colourful history and was past master of the art of war. Then there was Corporal Dusty Miller, an American, who was their explosive expert, a Petty Officer Casey Brown, radio man and engineer who knew how to handle boats and lastly Lt. Andy Stevens who was to navigate the boat and also an accomploshed climber but not in the same league as Mallory. They were to have support from 2 locals once they reached Kheros.

This is a typical Alistair MacLean novel with twists and turns that keep you glued to the book. There are tight spots, capture and betrayal that almost seem to defeat the team but they dig deep within their reserves and manage to come out fighting. The movie has a major deviation in that one of the locals aiding the team is a woman. She is the one who betrays them but it comes out that she has been coerced into spying. Also it seems that the movies depend on some romantic angle even in a war film and show that one of the team ends up in love with her!

The Guns have to be silenced but how? They have lost their food and shelter items while climbing the cliff, the fuses and detonators and bomb equipment have been tampered with and rendered useless. Lt. Stevens is in a bad shape after his broken leg starts rotting. The Germans are carrying out house to house search in order to catch them. All I can say is I am so glad to read this book again. The dry humour and understatements are really amusing and bring a smile to my face. There are so many little incidents that make me smile and it was nice to renew their acquaintance. Enjoy your read that is definitely better than the movie, which in its own right is a fantastic film.

Oh Mr Porter!

Oh Mr Porter is a Will Hay film from 1937. I have seen this film quite a few times and enjoyed it every time. I also invariable find new things to laugh about as it is easy to miss jokes while you are busy laughing over one. I do have this movie on DVD but since all my films are still packed in boxes I found it online. I was in need of a laugh after been dizzy over the last few weeks.

There are other interesting trivia about this film too. This film is also included in a blog as one of the 100 favourite films. This gives some information about the movie as well. As per usual I am not trying to give a synopsis of the film but just my perception of it.

Mr Porter is the brother in law of a senior railway official and so has been given a job in the railway. He is so hapless that he has been moved to all sorts of jobs and yet again he has messed up. However, his sister insists that he be promoted and not fired. So a job of station master (a promotion indeed!) is found at a small place called Buggleskelly in Ireland. He is blessed with 2 equally wretched helpers who have little interest in running this station where no train stops and the station looks derelict. Mr Porter maybe hapless but he certainly is keep and dedicated railway worker as he does all he can to get the station on the railway map again.

To this end he starts an excursion train which is hired by the Buggleskelly Wednesday football team. However the train leaves the station but does not make it even past the next signal junction. The hunt for the train is the second half of the story. It is funny how despite all things always seem to work out for Mr Porter! He certainly puts Buggleskelly on the map…. and not just the railway one. The speech is fast and the accents do sometimes make it hard to catch (especially when you are laughing) the wordplay which is excellent. The visual comedy is also aplenty and with almost every action taken by Mr Porter. The fast train ride through stations reminds me every time of the other train fun from one of the St. Trinians movies. The three way phone conversation between Mr Porter, the man at the signal junction and the boss of the railways is hilarious. The windmill scene where Mr Porter and his associates are trying to escape had me in stitches. Oh I can go on for a lot longer than the time of the film to identify every thing that makes me giggle non-stop. But it will be better if you find the jokes for yourself.

So here is the link to see Oh Mr Porter – enjoy!

Johnny English Reborn

I had seen the first movie Johnny English and had found it amusing and so when the sequel was being advertised I thought it would be fun to see this one too. Seeing the ads on TV certainly made me think it was a good idea. However, just as it came out I saw a review on the TV and it was not so complimentary of the movie. But I usually do not pay much attention to reviews as I often do not agree with them.

So last weekend I watched it. Being a wet and cool day I was happy to stay indoors and be entertained. I must also say that Rowan Atkinson is one of my favourite actors. Except for his Mr Bean character I love all his work. For some reason even though Mr Bean has been very popular I find it hard to laugh at that. Now give me his bumbling police inspector in Thin Blue Line or the Blackadder series (particularly the last one set in WWII). I find that he has a good and timely delivery of the dialogues hilarious. Well maybe that’s why I find Mr Bean (a silent character) not so funny.

Anyway back to the movie, Johnny has been thrown out of the service as under his security a president was assassinated. He has been living in a Tibetan monastery learning to be strong through martial art and meditation. Then comes a case where an informer will only talk to Johnny. Must against her better judgement the head of MI7 (oh yea we have moved to modern times and have a female head of services) bring Johnny back into active duty. There starts the usual bungling approach to Johnny’s case management. Some of the antics are reminiscent of the Mr Bean style, and mostly anticipated. Not that the anticipated event can be less funny as demonstrated by the gags in the final moments of the movie. In fact that was the best laugh as the expressions are wonderful and making it memorable. If you are watching and start getting irritated with anticipated gags….. just be patient the last laugh is the best.

Oh yes when Johnny goes to a country house to play golf with a suspect I sat up in the chair as this is Brocket Hall in Herts. I have walked there many a times and yes the path for the ‘country walk’ goes right through the golf course. So when Johnny’s golf ball hits a woman walking it is funny. But the antic with the helicopter is so unreal as you suddenly have these trees (obviously in pots) standing in front of the Hall where before there was nothing!

But this is a spy movie and the good has to win over evil. The spoof works reasonably well as one can see elements of great movies with events like gold playing (seen in a number of Bond movies), going up to castles on top of inaccessible mountains (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Guns of Navarone) where trolleys have to be used, mind control drugs and so on. Since I did not have to spend huge price of the cinema ticket I was happy watching this movie.