Movie Review: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Like I expected, David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo did not disappoint. As a fan of the book series that this film is based off of, and of Fincher, I had very high expectations for this film. I absolutely loved how this movie turned out, and any fan of the book should be extremely pleased with it. As much as I enjoyed the original Swedish version of the film, I thought this adaptation was much better.
The movie starts off with a beautifully disturbing opening title sequence that immediately engulfs you, leaving a little dazed. It's a great lead in to a patiently told disturbing tale of murder, scandal and abuse.
Fincher did an amazing job bringing this story to life. He was meant to adapt these books into movies, and I really hope that he gets to make the next two. For those of you who have not been exposed to this book series yet, you are in for quiet a dark and insane ride. The story is pretty simple at the same time it's captivating. The hypnotically violent story follows an Investigative journalist by the name of Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is implicated in a court trial, and accused of making false allegations against a powerful businessman. The trial could mean the end of his career. During the litigation, a wealthy industrialist (Christopher Plummer) hires him to investigate a forty-year old murder that has been haunted him. Blomkvist accepts the offer, and eventually brings in the gifted and talented Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to help him solve the case. Salander isn't without her problems either, she's had a hell of a rough life but she definitely knows how to handle herself.
Craig is awesome in this film, he does such a great job playing this role of Mikael Blomkvist, but it's Rooney Mara who stole the show. Here portrayal of Lisbeth Salander is Academy Award worthy, and there's no doubt she'll end up getting a nomination for Best Actress. She played the role powerfuly, there was so much emotion and pain that you could see behind her eyes, like she is about to blow up at any time. She was quitely fierce, and that's not an easy thing to make the audience see and believe, but she pulled it off brilliantly.
One of the things I liked most about the movie that Fincher did so well was build an incredible amount of tension throughout the film. He's a master at this, and you've seen it in his previous films Se7en and Zodiac. Watching what Salander had to go through on screen was incredibly intense and hard to watch. This movie is definitely not for the faint of heart. There are some pretty hardcore themes in this film that the audience is forced to deal with. There were people actually getting up and walking out of the theater during these scenes in the theater I saw the movie at. There are a couple of rape scenes in this movie were truly shocking. I think the reason Fincher went all out on these scenes was to help the audience sympathize with the characters involved a little more, it also shot like this to up the shock value of the film as well.
Needless to say the film was beautifully shot with an eerie coldness. Some of my favorite scenes in the movie involved the strenuous research that the two main characters had to go through. There are minutes up on the big screen that pass without any word being said, just the screen filled with computer screens, photo's, printouts, post-its and files. Each one bringing Mikael and Lisbeth closer to solving the case. It's fun to see the mysteries unravel and the secrets reveal themselves. All of it being filled with Trent Reznor's hauntingly awesome musical score.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is not Fincher's best film. In terms of the serial killer films that he's made Zodiac is still my favorite, Zodiac is actually one of my favorite films of all time. I also consider Se7en as being a better serial killer film. That being said I still thought Dragon Tattoo was an excellently cold hearted mystery thriller, and a solid adaptation of the book.
This movie is not for everyone, but if you're a fan of the books or dark and twisted mystery thrillers in general, then you'll enjoy watching it.