The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (U.S.) (***½)

Directed by: David Fincher

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, Steven Berkoff, Geraldine James, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson, Donald Sumpter, Julian Sands

Seen: January 7^th 2012

***½ Out of ****

Remaking one of the best European movies of the last 5 years is risky at best, and suicide at worst. David Fincher being the visual genius that he is, the U.S. version of this movie does not disappoint – it’s viscerally brutal and visually fantastic with performances that knock the socks off, in particular from Rooney Mara as the by now iconic Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist. The two actors take over from Noomi Rapace, whom you can now see as Madame Simza in Sherlock Holmes 2; and Michael Nyqvist, the villainous Cobalt in Mission: Impossible 4. The story is mostly the same, with subtle changes: a different character solves a clue, some investigation trails are presented differently (and more impressively, the evidence surrounding the parade photographs just looks cooler), and the meeting of the two main characters is brought about in a slightly different way, somewhat later in proceedings.

Mikael Blomkvist is a disgraced reporter at Millenium magazine. Having lost his life savings in a libel case levelled against him by the corrupt Hans-Erik Wennerström, he happily takes the opportunity to temporarily move to a remote island where the very rich Henrik Vanger (Plummer) asks him to investigate the disappearance and murder of his niece Harriet under the cover of writing Vanger’s family history. Vanger’s payment for these services: the truth about Wennerström for Blomkvist. Vanger calls his own family detestable and many other nasty adjectives, and soon Mikael must navigate some very treacherous family politics.

Lisbeth Salander is a troubled young woman, and a ward of the state as a result of a violent past. She is a brilliant computer hacker, and works as an analyst for a security company. When her state guardian suffers a stroke, she is assigned the vile Bjurman (van Wageningen), who abuses his power over Lisbeth to a horrible degree. Lisbeth did the background check on Blomkvist for Vanger’s security company which led to his employment with the family, and when Blomkvist hears of this and comes up against some difficulty with his investigation, he approaches Lisbeth for help. Together the two start solving the case while also getting involved with each other.

Like the Swedish version of this story two years ago, the investigation advances brilliantly as the movie unfolds. I can’t tell for certain whether it is because I’ve seen the Swedish movie first, but it does feel that the investigation is, while visually better, not handled completely as well as in the original movie, not with as much frustration and intrigue as the original, even though it is still very good. Another element that I felt was slightly out of place was the relationship between the two main characters, which felt more natural in the Swedish movie, though not necessarily by much.

What Fincher does manage to improve on from the original he does in bucket-loads, in two arenas. He brings emotion to certain scenes involving Lisbeth (and later Vanger too – in a beautiful scene close to the end of the movie), who is not as clinical here as in the original, but seems more human; Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth was a block of superhuman ice, Rooney Mara’s Lisbeth is hard, but tormented and open to emotion. Also, Fincher rules the visual scene, from the jaw dropping title sequence reminiscent of that of one of Fincher’s best movies to date, Fight Club; to the stark and freezing Swedish landscapes, to the beautifully, almost pastel coloured realisation of events in the lives of the characters in the 70’s (reminded of the Henley Royal Regatta rowing sequence in another great Fincher movie, The Social Network). Even something as simple as a car crash becomes eloquent in a Fincher movie.

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is a great movie by a great film-maker that does come with one caveat: it’s absolutely not for sensitive viewers, as it confronts some very heavy subject material head-on, and doesn’t shy from depicting a brutal rape on screen. While the movie is not for everyone, it is a great movie.