The two movies I've seen this week share several things in common, including both being (loosely, at least) based on books, both involving investigation and set against a background of violence, and both with strong female characters. With the caveat about the violence, I'd recommend both of them.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (2009) (wikipedia), directed by Guy Ritchie (who directed RockRolla, Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels) follows a long legacy of Sherlock Holmes history, dating back over 100 years. The story features several of the Sherlock Holmes trademarks, but also offers a fresh take on the character. Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes wouldn't be that out of place in one of the other Guy Ritchie movies and is more inclined towards getting out and finding clues than sitting thinking the problem through. Rachel McAdams (playing Irene Adler) makes a good sparing partner for both his wit and action abilities, even if it was perhaps fairly novel to have a women in that sort of position in the period the movie is supposedly set. She seems to have done quite a bit of TV work, and I hope she appears in more movies.

I'd definitely recommend Sherlock Holmes (2009) as an entertaining movie. There's enough plot there to hold the action together, and the characters are well played (especially played off each other) even if different from much of what has gone before. But fundamentally it is a fast moving Guy Ritchie movie set around a detective story, without that much deep plot. It's set up for a sequel, and it'd be interesting to see what they do with the characters if they get to make one.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish movie based on a novel by Stieg Larsson (wikipedia), which was the first of three in his Millenium Trilogy. There's talk of an English version being made, and I can understand why -- there's a lot of good story here.

On the surface the story is about an investigative journalist who becomes instantly recognisable through losing a defamation case against a prominent businessman. He's then recruited to take one last look into the "disappearance" of a favour neice of another prominent businessman, in the time before he has to report for his time in prison. But there's a novel's worth of back story to be uncovered, and another complete tale that becomes intertwined with the "primary" one. Both tales have strong women who stand up for themselves, in very hands-on ways.

Noomi Rapace does an excellent job playing Lisbeth Salander, an apparently freelance operative for a security (investigation) company with quite a back story. And it looks like she's going to be in the movies of the other two books in the trilogy (still in production) as well, which fact alone makes them worth seeing. They also manage to do fairly well at showing a "hacker" at work -- the Debian file system listing looks a bit out of place on a Mac, and it's not clear why that is scrolling up or the process list is scrolling up, but most of the tech shown is believable if a little "movie set" like. Fortunately they manage to avoid all the "CSI" camera tricks (no unlimited zoom and enhance here -- there are real limitations to photographs, even when you have the negatives), taking the time to show real investigation.

With the caveat that there's real violence in this movie, some of it to the point where it's uncomfortable to watch, I'd also recommend The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Unlike the Sherlock Holmes movie there's lots of plot, and less action, but even at at 2.5 hours it never feels slow or drawn out.