THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – The Review

The problem with Hollywood’s take on THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is familiarity.  It’s such a good, engrossing murder mystery that I actually envy moviegoers who have not seen the Swedish version from just two years ago and are lucky enough to have the film’s many twists unfold surprisingly. That’s not the new film’s fault though and David Fincher, who was announced as the director almost as soon as the Swedish version reached our shores, has done an outstanding job, not only of bringing this story the screen, but stamping it with his personal style.

Fincher has made a supremely sensuous and hypnotic thriller, and one that’s likely to become a major hit. A mystery girl’s disappearance from a remote, inaccessible island kicks off the plot. Intrepid investigative Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), under investigation for libel, is hired by aged tycoon Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to look into the 40 year-old mystery of his 16-year-old niece, who suddenly disappeared without a trace. He assumes she was murdered, and before he dies, he wants to see the killer found and punished. Punk cyber-hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) checks out Mikael as a preliminary to his hiring, and is herself intrigued by the old mystery. The two team up and find themselves pursuing a family of Nazi perv serial killers. Anyone who’s seen the Swedish version (or has read the book) knows what truly dark and depraved business is in store for this improbable pair of sleuths.

Lisbeth Salander (aka: the chick With The Dragon Tattoo), a victim of sexual abuse and institutional cruelty, is already a major literary heroine, and the intense Rooney Mara, a virtual unknown, is liable to become a major star with this role. She’s not nearly as severe-looking as Noomi Rapace outside this film, but actually is made up to look even more shocking than her Swedish counterpart. Her slight, sinewy frame covered in body piercings and tattoos – is remarkable, as is her performance. Mara is ferocious, notably during the face-offs between Lisbeth and her sexually abusive court-appointed guardian. Daniel Craig underplays the lead and lets Ms Mara steal the film along with Stellan Skarsgard as the darkest of the Vanger family black sheep, capturing and conveying the charismatic essence of  evil.

After a couple of  mainstream-friendlier films (BENJAMIN BUTTON and SOCIAL NETWORK), we’re back in more familiar Fincher territory, rife with violence, darkness and nightmarishly horrific behavior. It works well as a good procedural mystery, with clues carefully tracked down in old photographs and newspaper archives, and is an exhilarating whodunnit as Mikael and Lisbeth uncover a 1950s serial killer in the Vanger family history. Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, all deliver outstanding work. The explicit sex is downplayed relative to the Swedish version, but not the violence and the new film is not without its flaws. They’ve set in in Sweden but the actors all speak English in vague, mumbly Swedish accents, except Craig, who speaks in a mumbly British accent. I’m not sure why they didn’t just transport the drama to America.

The last act of GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, an epilogue concerning Lizabeth helping Mikael expose the financier who  ruined him, seems anticlimactic taking place after all the serial killer shenanigans have been resolved. I don’t recall this bothering me in the Swedish film but perhaps the screenwriters could have better woven in that subplot. On balance though, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is an icily sleek work of sustained suspense, not for everyone, but an outstanding drama and it is highly recommended.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars