The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (18)

His novels are all page-turners and centre on the most outlandish and kick-arse female sleuth to date, Lisbeth Salander, a young, tattooed and ruthless computer hacker.

This is a fairly faithful adaptation of Larsson's work The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo, which is actually called Men Who Hate Women in Sweden but was changed for the international market for obvious reasons.

Discredited journalist Mikael Blomkvist faces a prison sentence for libelling a corrupt Swedish industrialist. Blomkvist is hired by a member of a wealthy dynasty to solve the disappearance of his great niece 40 years ago. He teams up with Salander and the pair uncover a dark and sinister world involving anti-semitism and ritualistic murder.

This is an intelligent, intriguing and compelling crime thriller and is just as violent as the book. It pulls no punches - for example, we watch Salander being viciously abused by her warped and perverted guardian.

Director Oplev navigates the complex plot with ease - all the different threads make complete sense by the end.

The character of Salander is clearly drawn out in Larsson's book and newcomer Noomi Rapace was inspired casting. Michael Nyqvist is perfect as her foil, the middle-aged Blomkvist.

It is a grave shame that Stieg Larsson didn't get to witness or enjoy the international success of his Millennium trilogy - more than 10 million copies have been sold worldwide. He died before the first work was published.

Sadly, Hollywood is reportedly now planning a remake, so it would be best to see it now before it is brutally butchered.