The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Welcome to a special episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Directed by David Fincher.

Written by Steve Zaillian.

Based on the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Written by Steig Larsson.

Review #150

MPAA Rating:  R for brutal violent content including rape and torture, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, and language.

Runtime: 158 min

Cast

Daniel Craig ...Mikael Blomkvist

Rooney Mara ...Lisbeth Salander

Christopher Plummer ...Henrik Vanger

Stellan Skarsgård ...Martin Vanger

Steven Berkoff ...Frode

Robin Wright ...Erika Berger

Yorick van Wageningen ...Bjurman

Joely Richardson ...Anita Vanger

Geraldine James ...Cecilia

First off. I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

Now on to the business of reviewing my 150th film which also happens to be one of the years best.

By now we all have heard about this film via the book or it's Swedish predecessor. History has told us that adapting films from books is very tricky. Only a handful could be considered true success stories. The others were colossal failures on every conceivable level. The team of Niels Arden Oplev, Nikolaj Arcel & Rasmus Heisterberg were able to capture the feel of the book with their film. To some, the critical acclaim is justified. To others like me the film was a disappointment. Not because of it's poor entertainment but due to it's potential. I however, seem to be in the minority of said opinion so with the great old USA taking a crack at it. We now have 2 versions to choose from.

Plot


This English-language adaptation of the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist as he investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

A film of this nature can only be handled properly by a few people. It's a story filled with intrigue, mystery, suspense and violence. It's a story that's both entertaining and detestable at the same time. It's a very delicate balance that wasn't adhered to by Oplev's version of the book. He stayed faithful to the source material as did this version with 1 exception. The violence is scaled down here. The Swedish version of the book is far more gratuitous in depicting the brutality. That doesn't mean that Fincher's version is light. Not by any means am I saying that.

It just has a "cleaner" feel to it.

This is precisely why David Fincher was the PERFECT choice to direct this film. He has an amazing imagination and and uncanny ability to keep it real. In a manner of speaking. You look at his resume and with the exception of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Alien 3 there isn't a stinker in the bunch. Now before you Ben Button fans come after me let me clarify. The film wasn't bad when it comes to the technical aspects. It was for me dreadfully boring and an insult to every other film that had to compete with it for Best Picture. Now Alien 3 is an entirely different story. I'm actually wrong putting this film in his bad filmography because it's technically not his film. Creative differences between him and 20th Century Fox forced him away from the lens and out of the edit room thus losing the integrity of what his vision for the Alien universe should have been. Looking back on what he's accomplished since then I would be shocked if those idiots at FOX aren't kicking themselves.

And if they're not, they should be.

Fincher did the same thing with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo that he did with The Social Network. He took the source material. Respected it but made it his own. Because of that this version is FAR SUPERIOR to the Swedish version. There were some liberties taken from both the original film and the book, especially the ending which I will get to in a minute. The main point is that despite the little tweaks, the film stakes it's claim as it's own. In no way does this movie play like a remake, reboot or re-imagination. Fincher does mess with the chronology of events a bit but in my opinion it was a smart way to present, deal with and finish secondary storylines, leaving the rest of the time dedicated to the core plot. This was something I was pleased to see happen. The book has so many other side stories that it was going to be very difficult to manage them all in a film version. Fincher stripped them down to their very core and didn't waste time with semantics. As a result the film plays smoothly, smartly and quite nicely even at 2 and a half plus hours.

My only gripe would be with the ending which I mentioned earlier. I won't say what happens. Let's just say the final shot wasn't necessary for the story's sake. Having said that I realize why they ended the film the way they did.

I just didn't think they had to.

The ending is a nice segue to the cast. The all star cast I should say. This movie is loaded with some pretty impressive names. Leading off with the top 2. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Craig plays Blomkvist with a greater definition than Michael Nyqvist's interpretation of the character. Of course nobody really cares about Craig except for some of you ladies maybe. The real story here is Ms. SalanderNoomi Rapace's rendition of the famous hacker was too cool for school. She was a woman that was not to be messed with. Her character was so perfectly cast that you could compare it to the casting of Wolverine in the first X-Men film. If they got that wrong, the whole movie is done before it even starts.

This was the challenge for Fincher and his crew. They had to find their "Rapace" since she was not going to take part in this version. Nor should she. There were feelers out to everyone from Angelina Jolie (who would have made a pretty good Lisbeth by the way) to Scarlett Johansson (who would have been a TERRIBLE Lisbeth by the way). Fincher's choice was Rooney Mara. Needless to say she was a head scratching pick at first. A relative "unknown" in the film world, her biggest name film's were The Social Network and the Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Instant buzz negative and positive were flowing after the announcement. Many felt she was not the right choice and it caused quite a stir. My feeling on this was pretty simple. It didn't matter who they got. They weren't going to be better than Rapace anyway. Why bother with the comparison's. So does Rooney make you forget about Noomi?

HELL NO! But that's OK because that wasn't her job. It was Mara's job to make Lisbeth right for THIS film.

Mara does the same thing with the character that Fincher does with the film. She respects the source material but makes Lisbeth her own. Her own person. There is a pretty noticeable difference between the Salander's. Rapace's Lisbeth is far more closed off and emotionless than Mara's Lisbeth. Mara plays Lisbeth with a hint of helplessness that you don't feel when you see Rapace's Lisbeth. This is clearly a byproduct of the script. Zaillian and Fincher humanized Lisbeth a little more in their version and it actually worked. I enjoyed Mara's Lisbeth as much as I enjoyed Rapace's Lisbeth. Each woman did a great job making the character their own.

The rest of the cast was superb. I can't say why because some of their descriptions would give a way plot info if you haven't seen the film yet or the original or read the book.

As a result I will call it a wrap for fear of accidentally spilling something I shouldn't.

On the 5 star scale. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo gets the full house. 5 stars with a "Worth Every Penny!" recommendation.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie for a while now. They got the right people to play in it and most of all they got the right man to make it. Fincher does it again. I just hope he comes back to make The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is The Adventures of Tintin.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"