"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" Movie Review

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright

Rating: R (U.S.) 18A (Canada)

Warnings: Brutal Violence Including Rape and Torture, Strong Sexuality, Graphic Nudity, and Language

Length: 158 Minutes

Studio(s): Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, MGM

Points of Interest: Inspired by novel, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"; Remake of 2009 film, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"



WHAT I LOVED:

- Rooney Mara delivers a stellar performance as Lisbeth Salander, once again making the heroine more interesting than the plot itself.

- Some of the twists are quite effective, making it an all around solid mystery to enjoy if you don't mind the twisted content.

- If you've seen the Swedish original and/or read the book, this American remake is nicely faithful to both.

- The sets are fantastic, and the movie is wonderfully shot to bring the story to life with maximum impact!

- The intro credits sequence is extremely cool!


WHAT I DIDN'T SO MUCH...:

- Not every element of the mystery makes perfect sense, and there's a few places where you need to stretch logic, despite the movie's otherwise very commendable commitment to realism.

- Some may find certain scenes to be rather difficult to watch if they have a weak stomach or are easily upset, since the story doesn't care about neutering the graphic content of the novel and previous Swedish film adaptation.

- The denouement is too drawn out, and the new ending sequence for the American movie feels unsatisfying.


AND HERE'S THE FULL REVIEW:

It seems that ever since the release of the original Swedish movie adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in 2009, I haven't been able to stop hearing about The Millennium Trilogy. If you're somehow not aware, this is a series of three posthumously published novels written by the late Swedish author and journalist, Stieg Larsson. These books and their subsequent Swedish movie adaptations were so popular, that the Swedish movies even screened in my home city, which almost NEVER picks up any kind of foreign subtitled films! The previous source material of movies and books may be extraordinarily acclaimed, but allow me to clarify here and now that I have never read the novels, nor seen any of the Swedish movies, though I did research the details of both so that I had a clear understanding of what was altered between each telling of Larsson's story. This was an intentional decision, since I wanted to take the American remake on its own merits, and not feel the need to incessantly compare it to the previous Swedish movies especially. It's inevitable that some will feel that this American remake is poorly justified, since the original Swedish movie adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is barely cooled, having been released on the big screen in 2009, before Hollywood decided to snatch it up and do their own spin on it, even with the Swedish movie still relatively easily unattainable. It sort of mirrors the hasty Hollywood remake of Swedish vampire film, Let the Right One In from 2010, retitled Let Me In, though that was fortunately a very good movie. Thankfully, this one is too, even if it barely wastes time making an American movie just to put recognizable Hollywood actors and a removal of subtitles into the package. I already knew that this American remake was in good hands, since it's helmed by David Fincher, one of Hollywood's top award-winning directors, whose most recent works include 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and 2010's The Social Network. In fact, it was thanks to The Social Network that Fincher discovered Rooney Mara, whom he cast as the movie's titular heroine, Lisbeth Salander. While the hasty production of the Hollywood remake of DT might leave a sour taste in some foreign film enthusiasts' mouths, I can at least clarify that this is a very strong, riveting adaptation, regardless of the justification of this American version's existence. December saw the release of many strong movies towards the tail end of 2011, and this is yet another one, if you want your movies to go deeper, darker and far more disturbing than the likes of the Sherlock Holmes and Mission: Impossible sequels for example. As with the previous source material, several scenes in the American remake can be very difficult to watch, so I wouldn't approach this film lightly if you have a weak stomach, though I hear that it's actually a bit less graphic than the original Swedish movie, albeit not by much. If you want a large, meaty dark movie that you can sink your teeth into, and one that raises a fair amount of interesting questions about the paradigm of violence and the human condition, this one is well worth checking out, though you'll enjoy it a lot more if you stifle the need to compare it to the Swedish original, assuming that you've seen that. You don't need to see it to appreciate the American remake however, and it's almost preferable that you see the American remake first if this is your first encounter with the story, like me, since you'll enjoy it a lot more without the urge to keep thinking back to the Swedish movie. On its own merits, this is a strong adaptation that's well told and outlines a considerable amount of promise for the trilogy's two follow-ups, and the main point of contention with it is simply the fact that it was quickly made after the Swedish movie's release. So, with that considered, this is a pretty airtight dark thriller that is sure to entertain and effectively disturb mature adult audiences, so long as they are willing to put aside their preconceptions and appreciate this film for what it is.

Characters: (9/10) - Most of the story focuses on our male lead, Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist who is being slapped with a libel suit, after attempting an expose on corrupt businessman, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. In the novel and original Swedish movie, Blomkvist apparently got a prison sentence, but in the American remake, he just gets a rather hefty fine, as well as a permanently damaged reputation, which, in my opinion, kind of better serves the storyline and makes more sense, as the prison arc didn't really need to be part of the story. After a background check, he's contracted by retired CEO of Vanger Industries, Henrik Vanger, to investigate the disappearance of a young heiress, whom he believes has been murdered by one of his family members back in the 1960's. Though the backbone of the movie's plot is about investigating this disappearance, the real highlight character arc comes courtesy of our heroine, Lisbeth Salander, whom the title refers to. Lisbeth is a ward of the state due to being diagnosed with mental incompetence, despite being in her twenties and being a noticeably gifted savant and tech expert (one of a few stretches in logic in an otherwise chillingly realistic movie), and her character arc eventually unites her with Blomkvist's investigation. I don't live in Sweden, granted, so maybe I just don't understand how it works there, but how does being an anti-social punk somehow equate to being mentally challenged? In a movie that tries so hard to be realistic, character threads like this kind of stick out as questionable, and normally I would say the same about the seemingly irrelevant events leading up to Lisbeth and Blomkvist crossing paths, which include some rather graphic sexual abuse by Lisbeth's new legal guardian (I'm warning you now). Even if this whole rapist character arc just distracts from the main driving force of the story, the investigation of Harriet Vanger's disappearance, and doesn't really influence said investigation in any way, I'm not going to really penalize it. This is because, as strange as it is, despite initially being independent of Blomkvist's agenda, Lisbeth is easily the story's most interesting and noteworthy character. Even though Blomkvist is who is trying to drive the plot forward, the interesting questions and compelling character study elements all come from Lisbeth, which could explain why the story is titled after her, and the movie's intro sequence seems to be a trip into her psyche, and not anyone else's. By the way, I very much encourage you to look forward to this intro sequence, which is a surreal, tar-filled and trippy montage of dark psychological imagery modeled after the innermost workings of Lisbeth's mind. It's a thrilling and chilling depiction of her most deep-rooted psyche set to an awesome remixing of Led Zeppelin's The Immigrant Song by the film's soundtrack composers, Atticus Ross, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and it's reminiscent of a creepy James Bond intro, somewhat ironic when you consider that Daniel Craig is in a lead role. This awesome intro credits sequence sucked me completely into the movie from the get-go, and its effects compensated for the initial slow pacing, so I think that audiences will likely enjoy it as a strong opener. Anyway, when Lisbeth and Blomkvist finally meet, the investigation starts heating up, and this is when the movie's best moments tend to start unfolding. Unfortunately, this is also when a lot of excess characters from the book just start becoming shoved into the background, in an effort to juggle the myriad Vanger family members that the movie expects you to keep track of. Henrik is conveniently removed from the plot by means I won't spoil, Blomkvist's initially high-profile married lover, Erika Berger is pushed aside, and Henrik's lawyer, Dirch Frode makes a clumsy exit, having added almost nothing to the movie beyond being a plot device and exposition dump for both Lisbeth and Henrik. Thankfully, Lisbeth especially nicely compensates with a compelling character arc that nicely evens out the movie sometimes failing to keep all of its balls in the air, and if you're not consistently paying attention, you'll often become easily lost when trying to keep up with the numerous characters that DT expects you to keep track of. It's difficult to talk about the numerous characters in the film without going into spoilers, so I'll just say that for the first half, DT feels like a combination of murder mystery and character study in jumping between Blomkvist and Lisbeth, two parts that come together surprisingly effectively when they work together to try and solve the mystery of Harriet Vanger's apparent murder. Sometimes, you'll have to put up with stretches in character logic, but considering the movie's extensive amount of highlight moments between its two leads, this is an acceptable compromise, if you're not going to be too much of a hard-ass about the strive for perfect realism.

Acting: (10/10) - Even if characters tend to come and go as the script pleases, with little to no warning, I do have to say that the performances in the movie are pretty well uniformly excellent, even from the underused actors. Daniel Craig is playing a more portly, slovenly version of himself in the role of Mikael Blomkvist that does a good job of capturing the picture of a disgraced everyman, and not his James Bond persona in disguise. He reacts as most real people would during the tense moments, which is to say, running away when he gets shot at, and lurching in digust when he sees something graphic. Blomkvist has a keen investigative mind, as Henrik perfectly sums up, but he never stops feeling like a real, vulnerable person, which helps to keep the tension high. On the flip side, it's Lisbeth that comes off as the more superhumanly capable character, having an eidetic memory and an immense catalogue of technical knowledge, though her vulnerability is still made apparent thanks to the surprisingly effective implementation of the whole rapist guardian arc. Lisbeth is one of the movie's most twisted and interpretive characters, one who is a victim of violence, but also a young woman who can be equally violent herself. Some of Lisbeth's scenes are when she is given a chance to strike back at those who would do harm to her, and it begs the question of how vindicated she would be as a victim, when she displays an almost murderous sadism and moral sociopathy. Rooney Mara had a tough act to follow after the immense acclaim of Noomi Rapace's performance from the original Swedish movies, but let me tell you right now that Mara is absolutely brilliant in the role. From the snippets I've seen of Rapace's performance, I find that Mara is less intimidating than Rapace, but this also makes her victimization feel more palpable during the more dramatic scenes, and it leads to a more effective sense of shock and awe when you really get to see Lisbeth's dark side unleashed. I think that the two performances nicely complement each other, effectively capturing dual sides of the same effective personality, so if you're worried about Mara not being able to fill Rapace's shoes, you can put those fears to bed, even if it's a different set of strengths on display with Mara's portrayal. The movie tries to cram in several big name actors, including Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright and Christopher Plummer, and all of them are nicely brooding, though since the movie never focuses on them, their performances aren't given a whole lot of room to breathe. Of these three, it's Christopher Plummer that has the most bearing on the story, and he was one of the only Vanger family members that I ever got a sense of charm out of, particularly when he's trying to put a light, casual spin on how disturbed and dysfunctional his family has always been for Blomkvist during Henrik's introduction. Wright is similarly effective as Blomkvist's married lover and magazine editor, and while the movie blatantly admits that she's an adulterer without giving the audience any real acquaintance with her husband, it's still difficult to dislike her, which some may interpret as the character feeling ineffective, if we're to believe that Erika is a bad person and an opportunist. There certainly is some interpretation for that, but again, I'm not spoiling anything. The bigger remaining actor is Stellan Skarsgard as Henrik's nephew, Martin, who provides much of the initial explanation of the island to complement Henrik's explanation of the Vanger family. He's Harriet's brother, but whether this has any bearing on the story, you'll just have to wait and see. Skarsgard is another of the more likeable Vanger family members, but unlike Plummer, he doesn't totally escape this sense of shadiness that the whole family seems to have. Thankfully, this isn't a big deal, because unlike Martin, Henrik is written out of the plot pretty early on, so it doesn't matter that he's the only person that the audience won't really suspect. The entire movie is carried forward by the combined talents of Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, and while they don't always offer the perfect replacement for Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace, they're still delivering two excellent performances that manage to hold up DT all on their own, Mara especially.

Stunts: (9/10) - As I said, the American remake is apparently less graphic than the Swedish original and novel, but David Fincher is still clearly not pulling punches. The slight reduction in graphic imagery is probably due to the fact that the American film ratings board is much stricter than their European counterparts when it comes to things like sexual content and torture, two things that DT really isn't shy about exploring. Any modesty here is probably only to avoid an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. There are several highly physical scenes involving rape, torture and other such unpleasantness, so allow me to again stress that people who are easily upset by controversial, twisted and violent scenes may have a hard time watching this movie during said sequences. I don't want to spoil the details of these scenes, as it would mean spoiling the movie and violating my strict no-spoiler policy, but just trust me that these scenes are meant to be as realistic and chilling as possible, so there are some points where DT is justifiably difficult to watch without feeling a bit disturbed and/or squeamish. Anything that comes close to an action scene is pretty restrained, and this is a movie that derives more thrills from its drama than it does from its violence, so while there is a physical component of stuntwork, it's prioritizing shock value over thrills. As disturbing as these scenes are, I do have to admit that they're pretty well-done too, even if you might feel like you need a shower and a good cry afterwards.

Special Effects/Animation: N/A

Set Pieces: (10/10) - One strength that the American remake definitely has over its Swedish counterpart is how well-shot it is. I've only seen a few clips from the Swedish movie, but the American version left more of an impression and came off as much more eye-catching, even when I'd initially just seen the trailer before watching the actual movie. Everything from the snow-covered Vanger estate to the seedy apartment of Lisbeth's guardian looks wonderfully realized, and the movie's sense of imagery is very powerful, which is unsurprising, since David Fincher helms some of the most visually compelling dramas in Hollywood, even with a restrained hand when it comes to the finer details. DT is stylish, but simple, as with many of Fincher's works, and if nothing else, a naysayer can look at this over the Swedish movie, and appreciate the improved quality of the set pieces, which bring the novel to life in a noticeably more memorable fashion than the original Swedish movies.

Costumes: N/A

Story: (8/10) - DT is a mostly engrossing mystery that leaves a strong impression, especially if you've never read the books or seen the Swedish movies that inspired it. Despite the fact that its lead characters are initially separate, it compensates for the slow, methodical pacing of the mystery with some very effective character study elements, especially from the perspective of Lisbeth, and nicely wraps everything up once Blomkvist and Lisbeth actually team up and start approaching the conclusion of their mystery. The movie begins, as I mentioned, with Millennium Magazine journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, losing a libel case against a crooked businessman, forcing him to pay a hefty fine, when his magazine firm is already in jeopardy. The retired CEO of a huge company called Vanger Industries, Henrik Vanger, takes advantage of the situation to hire the down-on-his-luck Blomkvist in order to utilize his investigative senses to try and unearth the mystery of his missing niece, Harriet. Henrik believes that Harriet was murdered by one of his own family members, and is asking Blomkvist to prove it for him. Blomkvist's background check was done by a technical genius and ward of the state, the anti-social Lisbeth Salander, whose guardian suffers a stroke, placing her in the 'care' of a bullying sexual deviant. The two are eventually brought together with a common purpose after it's made clear just how deep their mystery goes, exposing a string of crime and human perversion that runs deep within the Vanger family tree. That's about all I can say about the movie without spoilers, and while the story is both well-told and riveting in the American remake, I do have three points of contention with it. One I already mentioned, and that's that DT's commitment to hardcore realism can sometimes be its own undoing, since it asks us to suspend our disbelief when it comes to blatant lapses in character logic and circumstances, which is harder to do than when the movie tries to be so chilling and grounded. The second slight problem I had was that the denouement is way too drawn out, which I gather was also kind of the case in the novel too. After the mystery is solved and the villain is taken care of, DT sees fit to just keep dragging on for another fifteen minutes, in a hurried and somewhat slapdash effort to try and wrap up the character arcs that it left out to try and solve the main plot's arc; Harriet's disappearance. This makes the very final stretch of DT less interesting to sit through, since nothing really exciting goes on, and it just feels like the movie is in a rush not to forget to wrap up anything, which just comes off as a bit tedious. The third slight issue with the plot is that the ending is changed from the original Swedish movie, to be SLIGHTLY more in line with the conclusion of the novel, only with more liberties taken. Unfortunately, many DT purists will probably hate the American ending, because it feels contrived and unsatisfying, and doesn't give a clear direction of where the inevitable sequel will move things to, as if David Fincher wasn't sure if Hollywood adaptations of The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest would be green-lighted. Beyond those slight kinks though, the movie's story is very easy to get sucked into and try to unravel for audiences. Even when it gets complicated and occasionally a tad slow, it never stops being interesting, which makes it a consistently compelling drama to sit through before the somewhat irritating and long denouement.

Length/Editing: (9/10) - Unsurprisingly, DT is VERY well-directed and edited, and even with its very meaty 158-minute runtime, it never really struggles to suck audiences into its dark, twisted world. The only exception comes from the post-climax scenes, which drag and overstay their welcome, begging the question as to why some of this couldn't just be outlined in the sequel, without having to show every painstaking detail. It feels like a carryover strategy from the book, and possibly even the original Swedish movie, one that just doesn't really work. Even though the beginning moments are on the slow side though, DT is very easy to get engrossed in even from the get-go, so it's a real testament to Fincher's directing skills that he can take such a bloated, methodical story, and somehow make it so captivating, even when it can get very disturbing.

Genre Appeal: (9/10) - DT is a very strong thriller that mature adult audiences should be able to get efficiently invested in, so long as they can put aside any preconceptions that the Swedish movie might have instilled in them. Some of the stretched logic can be an issue, and the ending moments rapidly run out of steam, but the overaching mystery and impeccable character work that's evident throughout this entire piece is impossible to deny. It's dark, it's long, and it doesn't rush to tell its delightfully twisted tale of violence and pain, but if you don't mind hard-hitting thrillers that don't believe in pulling punches, you'll find that DT is one of the most chilling and memorable thrillers of all 2011, and obviously, a must-see in that respect, if you're old enough to get an admission ticket.

Re-watch Value: (5/10) - The large mystery and commendable commitment to detail by Fincher and his crew makes DT surprisingly easy to revisit if you want to continue exploring its dark themes, or perhaps get a refresher on the story before the sequel arrives. That said though, purists will likely be more inclined to revisit the more authentic Swedish movie over the American remake, even if the American version is generally more compelling with its imagery.

Conclusion- Even if I didn't have an easy time watching some of the more twisted scenes in DT, I still thought that this was a very good movie, and it made me really want to check out its Swedish counterpart. This is one of the reasons why I think that the existence of the American remake isn't such a bad thing, because like Let Me In, it gives me a more digestible and widely available way to experience a story, which in turn will make me want to see its less airbrushed Swedish original to see how I would compare and contrast the two. Again though, I intentionally avoided the Swedish movie initially, because I didn't want to keep referring back to it when pondering my final opinion of the American version. This will probably be the main issue that a lot of purists have with this movie, the fact that it came out only a couple of years after its Swedish inspiration, but to write off this American remake for such a silly reason would be doing yourself a considerable dis-service. Obviously, the Swedish and American adaptations offset each other with different strengths and weaknesses, and while purists will inevitably feel that the Swedish movie tells the story more authentically, the American version compensates with its higher polish and the fact that it tweaked a few elements of the Swedish movie that didn't really work. If you want to look at it from another perspective, this is also a great movie to watch for Rooney Mara's incredible performance in the role of Lisbeth Salander alone, and this movie should hopefully mark an extensive career boost for her, since her previous acting turns in recent memory were the lead role in the lukewarm Nightmare on Elm Street remake, and her bit part in The Social Network. With Fincher now confirming his commitment to helming the sequels and even suggesting that he may shoot them back-to-back, I'm also very excited to see where the trilogy will take us next, again avoiding watching the Swedish versions of the two sequels before I watch their American counterparts. To clarify, this doesn't mean that I have anything against foreign films, because I don't, it's just concurrent with my review style, which only covers first-run theatrical movies. My critiques of said movies would be less reliable if I based them around my feelings of another European movie that the reader may have never even heard of before I mentioned its respective American remake. For now though, I can easily recommend DT to anyone looking for a powerful, well-shot dramatic thriller that they can readily recall and question well after they exit the theatre. You may prefer the Swedish movie, and that's up to your opinion, but you still can't deny that for an American re-do that really didn't waste its time being made, DT is a cut above most other movies like it, even if it's not afraid to give you a few nightmares in the process.



FINAL SCORE: 86% "GREAT!"

FINAL VERDICT: "Purists will likely grumble at the hasty production of an American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo so early after the Swedish movie's release, but this powerful and memorable take on the story by director, David Fincher and his crew is no less effective or disturbing in all of its glorious bleakness! Driven forward very well by a compelling mystery and a superb performance by Rooney Mara in the titular role, this is a nicely dark alternative to many of the brighter, more chipper movies that have accompanied the December calendar."