Movie Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

“Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.”

Genre : Drama, Thriller

Director : David Fincher

Writers : Steven Zaillian, based on Stieg Larsson

Cast : Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgård

Quite unexpectedly director David Fincher returns to the thriller genre by remaking a Swedish film, which is in turn based on a novel of the same name written by Stieg Larsson. Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a concise, breakneck retelling of an aristocratic family shrouded in mystery and two unexpected colleagues that delve deep into the secrets of a nearly forty-year unsolved murder.

Dragon Tattoo is not just a slick, highly polished thriller filled with intrigue and lies. It’s more than that. Read on to find out why.

Much has been lauded on Stieg Larsson’s luridly violent Millennium Trilogy of novels, which I have not had the fortune of reading as of this writing. I have, however, watched the 2009 Swedish film version of Dragon Tattoo and while much praise can be given to its telling of a Swedish political magazine writer, Mikael Blomkvist, and an asocial, possibly insane, computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo is an entirely different film. And it’s for the better.

Dragon Tattoo has an incredible amount of detailed story to be told and thankfully we are never left slogging through stale exposition. We are always moving back and forth from Mikael to Lisbeth. We are constantly propelled forward, learning details that take us one step further in the pursuit of a murderer or the vindication of being oppressed. Watching Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist was thoroughly enjoyable to behold. We see every thought in his head as he parses the details in an effort to solve the mystery of the nearly 40 years missing Harriet Vanger. But Craig’s performance was not quite as engaging as Rooney Mara’s depiction of Lisbeth Salander. Nor is it meant to be. While Lisbeth is not the main focus of this filmic version of the novel, it certainly is her story. And it makes complete sense for Mara’s portrayal of her to be the dynamic, eye-catching performance of the film. Mara truly kept my attention rapt every second she was on the screen; the amount of intelligence and rage she possesses balanced by her seeming physical goth girl fragility makes it seem as if she is the most intelligent, highly dangerous girl anyone can cross paths with. Mara’s subtly powerful performance is worth watching the film for in itself. And not to be ignored are Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer and the rest of the supporting cast in their respective roles; each actor brings a wonderful amount of detail to their character.

Jeff Cronenweth’s cinematography is as solid as ever, reminding me fondly of his lighting and camera work in Fincher’s Seven and Zodiac. And not enough good things can be said for the understated and wholly integrated musical score composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The musical score was constantly piquing my interest at the unanswered or causing me dread at the unexpected.

The most significant flaw of this film comes from having to adapt a dramatically dense novel to the screen; to which screenwriter Steven Zaillian has undoubtedly done his best in making it a filmable script. We are most certainly missing great sections of character detail and exposition that were likely present in the novel. But those details were barely missed as I greatly enjoyed watching two apparently disparate stories come together. It takes over an hour for our two protagonists to finally meet and yet I was so involved in each of their individual struggles and triumphs, breakthroughs and calamities that I was never left wanting for things to happen faster. I was along for the ride. This is a murder mystery thriller with ex-Nazis, rape, murder and heaping amounts of intrigue and all that would be for nothing if the main characters weren’t captivating enough to want to follow.

And Lisbeth is truly a unique character worth following and this is truly her story. Watching the struggles she goes through left me cringing at times and joyful at others. Watching a female character come out of their inner darkness and find something positive in a world that is so full of oppression and opposition toward them is what a good character arc needs in order to touch us as viewers. This is the core of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Lisbeth’s story of her inner and outer struggles against those that prevent her from being her own self-sufficient person. It’s her story of finding her place in the world, of finding a friend.

Dragon Tattoo succeeds in many aspects. It is a highly polished, wonderfully acted and directed film and I would have expected nothing less from Fincher. It’s because I got what I expected that keeps this from being Fincher’s finest film. But again that is a failing of having to translate a dense novel to the screen and not a failing of the highly creative and talented individuals that created this riveting thriller.

It’s a rare thing to watch a movie, be so enthralled by it, so swept up in the tension and the mystery of it that despite its inherent flaws, you don’t want it to end. And that’s my biggest complaint with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to learn more about the characters before their stories came to a finish. Which in turn really isn’t a complaint at all.

I highly look forward to the sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. If Fincher, Zallian and the rest of the creating driving force behind Dragon Tattoo are brought on to continue making the Millennium Trilogy adaptations, we are all in for a cinematic treat.