Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

  This is the original Swedish version, not the American remake with Daniel Craig.  It is miles and away better, becoming that rare property that is more than its source. 
Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is a disgraced journalist hired by an aging industrialist named Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of Vanger's niece Harriet, same as the American version.  But what this movie gets right is focusing less on Blomkvist and more on Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace).  It adds more detail about why she is the way she is, which is not in the first book, but was a welcome change. 

Overall, the pacing was much better and the cinematography was much less boring.  I particularly liked the fact that everything is gray and snow-covered in the beginning but moves to a delicately green spring as the mystery is revealed.  It's an almost literal breath of fresh air.

I hated the book.  It did not hold any joy for me and I found it a chore to read.  I would not read the second one.  I wouldn't watch the second American version.  But I have already added the second Swedish one to my Netflix queue.  That's how good it is.