I cannot deny that this movie is well made. It's atmosphere, mystery and thriller elements are all top notch. The story is solid. The detective work is engaging and well depicted.


That said, there were other elements that felt grotesque, gratuitous and just extended the runtime a lot. This is a looong movie, and it's made even longer by [spoiler] a bunch of scenes of sex and sexual assault [/spoiler] that we really do not need. Like sure, some of it goes to telling us about Lizbeth's backstory and character, but I honestly think the movie would have been better without them.
I think the main justification for why they're there is to establish the characters in ways that only really matter if this movie has sequels, which it was clearly intended to (as the books and Swedish adaptations do), but they never really eventuated. In light of that, I feel that nothing would be lost without those scenes, and the first half of the movie would be shorter and tighter, and the age rating could also probably be bumped down.

Overall, I found this a very stressful viewing experience, and not one I'd recommend for the faint of heart, by any means. If you're not easily shocked, you'll find a very good mystery thriller here.