The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Review

Messages: Despite the intense violence perpetrated by people in power, the movie's overall message is that victims of outrageous crimes and abuse can find dignity and self-respect by developing their skills and reaching inward for courage and strength.

Role models: An offbeat heroine demonstrates that appearances can be deceiving: She's pierced, tattooed, anti-social, and she smokes constantly, but Lisbeth also proves to be highly intelligent, creative, and skillful. She's willing to risk her life for her beliefs, as well as for the safety of those about whom she cares deeply. On the other hand, women are seen as victims as well as heroes.

Violence: Several sequences graphically depict sexual assault, forced oral sex, torture, beatings, and bloody attacks. Numerous gruesome photographs of mutilated female bodies appear throughout. Characters are strangled, hung, whipped with electrical cords, drowned, and burned.

Sex: Consensual sex and explicit sexual activity with partial nudity, both male and female (breasts). Graphic sexual dialogue.

Language: English subtitles in translation from the Swedish include multiple use of  "f--k," "motherf--ker," "bitch," "s--t," "goddamn," "whore," "c--t," "blow job," "damn," and more.

Consumerism: Apple computers, Google, Castrol, KIA.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: The lead character, a young woman, smokes cigarettes non-stop. There's also some moderate social drinking in a number of scenes.