Lisbeth is as compelling as any movie character in recent memory. Played by Noomi Rapace with an unwavering intensity, she finds her own emotional needs nurtured by the nature of the case she investigates, the disappearance of a young girl 40 years earlier. As this case is revealed as part of a long-hidden pattern of bizarre violence against women, memories of her own abused past return with a vengeance.

Rapace makes the character compulsively interesting. She plays against a passive fortysomething hero, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), an investigative journalist who has six months of freedom before beginning a prison sentence for libel against a Swedish tycoon. Mikael, resourceful and intelligent, is hired by an elderly billionaire named Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), who inhabits a gloomy mansion on a remote island and broods about the loss of his beloved niece Harriet. She vanished one day when the island was cut off from the mainland. Her body was never found. Because the access bridge was blocked, the killer must have been a member of Vanger’s large and greedy family, which he hates. Three brothers were Nazi sympathizers during the war.

The notion of a murder with a limited list of suspects was conventional even before Agatha Christie. Niels Arden Oplev’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” pays it lip service, with Mikael covering a wall with photos of the suspects. But this is a new age, and in addition to his search of newspaper and legal archives, he uses the Internet. That’s how he comes across Lisbeth, who has been investigating him. She’s described as Sweden’s best hacker, a claim we have no reason to doubt, and the intensity of her focus, contrasted to her walled-off emotional life, suggests Asperger’s.

They team up on the case, and might become lovers if not for Mikael’s diffidence and her secretive hostility. They become efficient partners. Scenes involving newspaper photographs and Internet searches create sequences like a “Blow Up” for the digital age. The film is unique in my memory for displaying screen shots of an actual computer operating system, Mac OS X, and familiar programs like e-mail and iPhoto. Ever notice how most movie computers work like magic?

The forbidding island setting, the winter chill, the frosty inhabitants, all combine with dread suspicions to create an uncommonly effective thriller. It’s longer than average, but not slow, not after we become invested in the depravity of the case. There are scenes involving rape, bondage and assault that are stronger than most of what serves in the movies for sexual violence, but these scenes are not exploitation. They have a ferocious feminist orientation, and although “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” seems a splendid title, the original Swedish title was the stark “Men Who Hate Women.”

The novel, one of a trilogy which Stieg Larsson completed before his untimely death at 44 in 2004, was an international best-seller. It is destined to be remade by Hollywood. That remake may turn out to be a good film, but if I were you I’d be sure to watch this version. The Hollywood version will almost certainly tone down the sexual violence. I can’t think of an American actress who could play Lisbeth. Kristen Stewart, who I respect, has been mentioned. Dakota Fanning. I dunno. A younger Jodie Foster, maybe. Someone able to play hard as nails and emotionally unavailable. Make her a Swede, and simply cast Noomi Rapace.

This is not a deep psychological study. But it’s a sober, grown-up film. It has action, but not the hyperkinetic activity that passes for action in too many American movies. It has sex, but not eroticism. Its male lead is brave and capable, but not macho. Its female lead is sexy in the abstract, perhaps, but not seductive or alluring. This is a movie about characters who have more important things to do than be characters in an action thriller.

Today I decided to share with you some of my Why did____cross the road jokes.

Why did Billy Joel Cross the Road:

To get to ‘Allentown’, to be the ‘big man on mulberry street’, to get to the ‘river of dreams’, i don’t know but it took him ‘the longest time’.
Why did Glenn Beck cross the road: Because the road crossed him.

Why didn’t Obama Cross the Road: He promised he would.

Why did Jay Leno Cross the Road: To catch up to his chin!

Tommorow, I am going to meet soon to be guitar legend Martin Sexton. SWEET. I will tell you about the experience tommorow. Good NIght zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

But the worst element of this movie is the story’s utter lack of plausibility. In the original British version, the story works; in this ripoff version, the story collapses. The characters, the setting, the racial factor, does not support what the audience is asked to believe about the deceased. As this movie proves, what may be funny in a movie about a British family may not necessarily be funny in a movie about a black family set in Los Angeles, even if the story is the same.

I have had writers block this week. goodbye.

I can’t say that I am a particularly big fan of Dean Martin, but I always thought this song was cute

When I was a kid, I used to have this song as my wake up alarm.

That’s all for now.

Highlights Include:
Summertime
Four Seconds
On the Lookout
How Long

Original co-founder with Page, Ed Robertson is still the most seasoned & has the most consistently good songs in the band, but it is nice to actually hear the other members, all of which make a vocal appearance, if not songwriting appearance at some point in the album. Kevin Hearn takes the softer more folk approach to his songs (something you’d never have heard on a BNL album before, probably for good reason), and Jim Creeggan takes a more adult contemporary approach, in the vain of a Rob Thomas. But even with the new changes, something is still very noticeably off. Take for example lyrics like this:

“Even a busted watch is right twice a day”

Now, I may just be forgetting and the band may have had poorly written and lazy lyrics like this in the Page days, but it becomes all the more noticeable now. Something is off, and the band just isn’t the same anymore. What’s worse is that they’ve gone forcibly headlong mostly in the the lite hits/adult contemporary genre. If you’re a fan of that genre, which the band had always hung around, you’ll be very pleased with this album. But there simply isn’t any chances taken apart from letting the rest of the band share the workload left by Page.

Overall, while it is far from being bad, and it’s a pleasant listen, the Barenaked Ladies have put some clothes on to expose the member they’ve lost, and it shows. A more casual fan might not notice, some hardcore fans may not care, but for those of us that knew that part of the soul of the band was in Page, and thusly admired his work, the band simply isn’t the same, but still do a great chorus. Take it or leave it at that.

My first brush with the police happened was when I was 17 years old.  I was walking on a sidewalk outside of my neighborhood. Someone called the police saying a looked disoriented and suspicious. I was forced to be driven home despite my parents permission to walk there.

Pretty lame huh!?! Luckily, I can say the police haven’t bothered me since.

What was your first encounter with the police??? Tell me. Feel free to share.

That’s All for Now.