Based on the first novel in a trilogy, Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” tells the gripping story of an unlikely pair whose investigation into a years-old dissappearance leads them to the trail of a dangerous serial killer.

Based on the best-selling Swedish crime novel by Stieg Larsson, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has finally hit American theaters and has hit the ground running.

Following its initial release in Sweden last year, the film claimed three Guldbagge Awards (awarded by the Swedish Film Institute), including Best Actress and Best Film, and three other nominations in the European Film Awards and Amanda Awards in Norway.

Without a trace, sixteen-year-old Harriet Vanger vanishes from the island that houses her influential family. Her disappearance continues to haunt her family for forty years, so an old and distraught Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) calls the once-renowned journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nygvist), to investigate the decades-old mystery.

As he searches for the truth, he meets Lisbeth Salamander (Noomi Rapace), a dangerous girl that has been hacking into his computer since the day he lost a libel trial. The two team-up to solve the mystery surrounding the secretive Vanger family, and their combined efforts eventually lead them to the unsolved crimes of a serial killer.

From a formal standpoint, the film is a resounding success. The cinematography is beautiful—every scene is unsettlingly real, striking a balance between the familiar and the frightening. The lighting is appropriately stark, inspiring shadows of doubt concerning the characters’ suspicions, motivations, and secrets. The accompanying score by Jacob Grost is so in tune with the film that it alone could chill a listener to the bone.

Moreover, the focus on strong character development also seems to be the key to the film’s overall success, as it allows for some incredible performances. Rapace shines through in a performance that is brutal to watch and torturous to think about.

Her mysterious, violent, loner persona could easily get lost had the film solely focused on the twisting plot, and that is not a risk worth taking. It is her odd-girl approach that keeps the movie rolling and keeps the mystery unraveling.

The titlular character keeps the movie at a gratifying edge-of-your-seat intensity, to the point where her violently tattooing “I’m a sadist pig and a rapist,” across her guardian’s chest is satisfying.

In fact, every facet of this story touches a nerve. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” dabbles with the horrors of mental instability, broken families, rape, religious fanaticism, and racism. And while the tale is fictional, it attempts to shed light on societal issues in Sweden that are often overlooked: violence against women, capitalist corruption, and anti-Semitism.

The film is not, however, completely flawless. At times, the movie  focuses so keenly on character development that it detracts somewhat from the story line. This development is essential to discerning why Lisbeth and Blomkvist, two extremely lost people, make the kind of desperate and dangerous decisions that they do. Larsson’s story is more eloquently written than the pared script. This ultimately is no fault of the movie, however, as that kind of story-telling simply cannot be delivered without several more hours of film.

The twisted tragedy of the morally bankrupt Vanger dynasty, a fallen and disgraced journalist, and a girl who has experienced every horror one could imagine is deeply engaging. Despite the slightly lacking plot development, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is a near triumph.

—Staff writer Brianne Corcoran can be reached at corcoran@fas.harvard,edu.