One of the things I love about being a historian is the research. Some of my happiest times while in graduate school were spent digging through archives, assembling the facts, and finding patterns in them. There is a quietness in those moments when it is just you and the information in a deserted room that probably gets only a few visitors a decade. If any of this sounds appealing, then I have the movie for you: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Having said all this, my Catholic sensibilities force me to warn you that there is a lot of ugliness here. When you look into certain things, sometimes you are going to find stuff people would rather stay forgotten. Sadly, there is a darker side to life where those who are purposely far from God hide. Investigations can shed God’s light on some pretty horrendous events, so be prepared.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo demonstrates that the quiet work of research can uncover things considerably more disturbing than an historian might expect to find in an archive. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) has just lost a libel case brought by wealthy businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg), damaging both his reputation and Millennium, the fictional magazine he co-owns with Erika Berger (Robin Wright), with whom he is also having an affair. Mikael steps away from the publication and accepts an unusual assignment from retired industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer). Henrik asks him to investigate the 1966 disappearance of his sixteen-year-old grandniece, Harriet Vanger, who vanished from the family’s island estate while an accident blocked the only bridge to the mainland. Henrik believes someone in the deeply dysfunctional Vanger family murdered her. Every year since, he has received a pressed flower like those Harriet once gave him, which he suspects is the killer tormenting him. Mikael moves into a cottage on the island under the pretense of writing a family history and begins looking into the mystery. Examining photographs, records, old police reports, and the complicated Vanger family tree, the matter appears impenetrable. Meanwhile, we meet Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), the troubled private investigator who had conducted an extraordinarily thorough background check of Mikael before Henrik hired him. Lisbeth is a ward of the government of Sweden, and after her longtime guardian suffers a stroke, attorney Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen) takes control of her finances. He abuses that authority, culminating in a brutal sexual assault. Lisbeth secretly records what he does and later turns the tables on him, restraining him, tattooing a warning across his torso, and using the recording to force him to restore her financial independence and report favorably on her competence. Back on the island, Mikael discovers a list of names and numbers in Harriet’s records. His daughter, Pernilla (Josefin Asplund), recognizes the numbers as references to passages in Leviticus, and Mikael begins connecting them to a series of murdered women. Biblical verses being used as inspiration for murder is about as far from a proper reading of Scripture as one can get. Needing help, Mikael asks Henrik’s lawyer, Dirch Frode (Steven Berkoff), for a research assistant and learns about Lisbeth’s investigation of him. Impressed by what she uncovered, Mikael hires her. Together they discover that the murdered women had biblical or Hebrew names and that the killings correspond with travel undertaken by members of the Vanger family. Their investigation increasingly points toward Harriet’s father, Gottfried, and her brother, Martin (Stellan Skarsgård), now head of the family company. Mikael and Lisbeth also become lovers, though their personal relationship remains secondary to the increasingly horrifying evidence they uncover. After someone shoots at Mikael, Lisbeth traces the murders through Vanger corporate records and realizes that Gottfried began the killings and Martin continued them. Meanwhile, Mikael enters Martin’s house looking for evidence, only to be captured. Martin takes him into a hidden basement chamber and admits that he has tortured and murdered women for years, following the example set by his father. He insists, however, that he did not kill Harriet because he has never known what happened to her. As Martin prepares to murder Mikael, Lisbeth arrives and saves him. Martin escapes in his vehicle, and Lisbeth pursues him on her motorcycle until he crashes and dies when the vehicle catches fire. The revelation that Martin was a killer does not solve Henrik’s original mystery, since his confession means Harriet may have survived. Mikael returns to the old photographs and notices that Harriet was looking toward someone shortly before she disappeared. He and Lisbeth eventually focus on Harriet’s cousin Anita (Joely Richardson), who lives in London. After surveillance produces no contact with another woman, Mikael realizes the truth: the woman calling herself Anita is actually Harriet. She explains that Gottfried sexually abused her for years and that Martin later did the same. Harriet finally fought back against her father, striking him with an oar and allowing him to drown. When she later saw Martin at the parade on the day of her disappearance, she feared that he would kill her. The real Anita helped Harriet escape the island, and after Anita later died, Harriet assumed her identity. With Martin now dead, Harriet can finally return home, where she has an emotional reunion with Henrik. Henrik keeps his promise to give Mikael information against Wennerström, but the material is too old to be useful. Lisbeth therefore conducts her own investigation and uncovers evidence of Wennerström’s criminal activities, allowing Mikael to publish an exposé that restores his reputation and damages Wennerström. Lisbeth goes further, disguising herself and transferring billions from Wennerström’s hidden accounts before he is later found murdered. Having developed genuine feelings for Mikael in the process of helping him, she buys him an expensive Christmas gift. Before giving it to him, however, she sees him happily walking with Erika. Lisbeth throws the gift away and rides off alone.

I had not seen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo since I saw it in the theater. The content found therein is difficult for my Catholic sensibilities, and therefore I have not found the stomach until now to rewatch it. Still, then as now, I always felt as if Lisbeth gives up too easily on Mikael. Their relationship, of course, does not make sense given their age and cultural differences. At the same time, they connect on a level that God imbues in all of us, that being the gifts with which He blessed them on the day He created them. They share a passion and talent for investigation, and when two people have traits in common, it is not unusual for genuine affection to blossom between them no matter who they are. There are deeper things going on, however. She is used to men mistreating her, and her life and outlook on it are a testament to her mistrust of the opposite sex. That she experiences so much ugliness is something even the film is aware of, with the security firm for which she works being sensitive to her past. It gets worse when her guardian suffers a stroke and she is abused by Nils. The answer is not to return his treatment in kind and then blackmail him. Needless to say, that is not what Jesus would do. All the same, you can understand her rage. What is remarkable is the effect that tenderness has on her. Mikael treats her with a kindness she has not known, asking nothing of her in return. Put differently, he acts altruistically, and that is at the heart of Christianity. For example, she asks him for a large sum of money, and he says yes before she offers to pay him back, not knowing whether she will be able to do so. If we could all treat one another in a similar manner, the world would be so much brighter than the darkness you see here.

As such, when Lisbeth throws away the gift and rides off on her motorcycle at the end of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she is giving up on further steps into the light and choosing continued darkness. She is returning to the world she knows, which is disappointing, but not why I would avoid this one. It is a compelling story, but the material used to tell it is too graphic.