A Goth punk hacker, a discredited journalist, sexual violence, a 40-year-old murder mystery and smart thrills. Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novel The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo makes it to the big screen with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara in starring roles. Director David Fincher, who recently helmed The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, goes back to his dark and stylish roots (think Seven, Fight Club and Zodiac) for this sombre drama.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first film in Columbia Pictures’ three-movie adaptation of Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Written by Steven Zaillian, the film also stars Stellan Skarsgård, Elodie Yung and Christopher Plummer.

The Millennium trilogy has sold 50 million copies in 46 countries and is a worldwide phenomenon. The first installment introduces us to financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig), a man who exposes the corrupt practices of top financiers in his magazine, Millennium. When an investigation leads him up a wrong trail, Blomkvist finds himself facing a prison sentence for criminal libel. So there’s no way he can refuse when Henrik Vanger (Plummer), a powerful businessman, approaches him with an investigative job: To solve the mystery of a niece who disappeared 40 years ago. Harriet disappeared during a family gathering on an island owned by the Vangers. No one saw her leave, her body was not found anywhere, but Vanger believes that she was murdered by a member of his dysfunctional family.

Beginning the probe, Blomkvist links Harriet’s disappearance to a series of gruesome murders committed 40 years ago. Realising that proceeding alone will be a walk up no-go street, he approaches 25-year-old Lisbeth Salander for help.

Blomkvist may seem to be the main protagonist, but Salander’s the real star of the Millennium series — there’s no one quite like her. She’s 25, a hacker with a photographic memory and an antisocial mathematical genius. She’s unwilling to take orders, rides a Hell’s Angel and simmers with a deeply controlled rage. Larsson’s series, a bitter expose of Sweden, Stockholm, corruption (governmental and corporate), sex and drug trafficking, and the secret police, casts a scathing eye on men — in this series, most are perverts, rapists, sex traffickers, wife beaters, and killers. His Salander, victim and survivor, refuses to buck down.

As the investigation picks up pace, Blomkvist and Salander realise what a secretive clan the Vangers are and what they’re willing to do to keep family secrets from spilling out of the closet. Will the duo be able to connect the dots? Is Harriet’s disappearance connected to the grisly murders? What murkiness lurks in Salander’s past? And what of the chemistry between the lead pair? Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can’t escape comparisons with Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev’s film starring Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace. Sold to more than 25 countries outside Scandinavia, the Swedish film has many fans.

Is there a Oscar buzz around Mara and Fincher (nominated earlier for The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)? Fincher has jo­ked that there’s “too much anal rape in this movie to get nominated”. There’s violence, disturbing image­ry, brutality and sadism — all put together in a stylised manner. Add to that the legions of Larsson fans ar­ound the world, and Fincher’s surely got a winner on his hands! But will Mara, with her tattoos, piercings and leather outfits, bring the sphinx-like Salander to life? And will she outshine Craig? You decide!