Sunday, January 15, 2012
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher, thankfully, puts his familiar style into this story written by the late Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. Fincher has directed some of the slickest thrillers in recent years, ranging from Seven to Zodiac to Fight Club. He also directed last year's The Social Network, which you'll be reminded of if you see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Both films have a similar look, feel and sound. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scored both movies with their usual genius mix of electronics, piano and percussion. While this score isn't as catchy and uptempo as The Social Network's, I do think it served the film very well. It helps give the movie a driving backbeat and goes along with the title character's techno-ubiquity. Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the tattoo, with a dark intensity that will make her both impossible to dislike and difficult to forget. Her computer hacking abilities are as frightening as they are impressive - I would not want her investigating me. I've read that the producers and studio executives needed six months of convincing before casting Mara for this iconic role - they felt that she didn't have the right look and/or ability to convey the level of strength of Lisbeth Salander. Good lord, were they wrong. Mara is literally the perfect actress for this role.
Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who is hired by a wealthy family patriarch to figure out the circumstances surrounding a mysterious disappearance nearly 40 years earlier. Craig is good in this role, although he isn't given much room to show off his dramatic range. He instantly becomes more intriguing when he and Salander join forces on screen.
While I have never read any of the three books by Larsson, I have seen all three Swedish films that came out in 2009, and feel confidently equipped to say that Fincher's version blows the originals so far out of the water, it hardly seems a fair fight. Both actors who play the Swedish versions of Salander and Blomkvist are awkward and uninteresting compared to Mara and Craig. I liked Mara's Salander far better than Rapace's - and there are plenty of differences, believe it or not. Salander in the American version is far more feminine and attractive, yet also far more childish (often seen eating Ramen noodles and Happy Meals). It's clear that Hollywood had a hand in making Salander more appealing for American audiences.
I liked this film, especially since I had absolutely no idea where the story was going. If I had seen the Swedish version or read the novel prior to seeing this film, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it quite as much. Much of the fun of it was the anticipation of what was coming next - trying to unravel the mystery on my own was thrilling and suspenseful. Being introduced to such a unique and damaged character like Lisbeth Salander was really amazing. It is hard to take your eyes off of Rooney Mara in this role. She inexplicably shows the many layers of sadness and anger, strength and stoicism, arrogance and sexuality, brilliance and rage. How can she pull off being vulnerable and invincible at the same time?
In terms of the plot coverage of both the Swedish version and the Fincher version, there were significant differences. I won't get into them in this post, but I will say that the final scene in Fincher's version was absolutely amazing. I did not see it coming a mile away and it was a perfect way to end the film. The Swedish version suffered greatly for not having this as the ending.
Solid turns from Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright and Stellan Skarsgard help to round out the cast.
Fincher wraps it all together quite well and I was pleased to hear that, despite a poor box-office performance, he will be directing the second and third films in the series. Without his dedication to style and Mara's riveting performance, it would merely be just another thriller, like its Swedish predecessor.
(As I am typing this, Rooney Mara just lost the Golden Globe for best actress to some woman named Meryl Streep)
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oh that Meryl!!
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