Film Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

On the whole, I could never really see what the whole fuss was about when it came to Stieg Larsson's 'Millennium Trilogy', or the films that came out after that. The first book, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was a great read, granted. But the original film adaptation wasn't the masterpiece so many proclaimed it to be in my eyes.

Then the second and third books, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, respectively, just turned into one boring slog, which I thought could have probably been edited down into one book. The film adaptation of the former was alright, but needed trimming down too, and I never bothered watching the film of Hornet's Nest, due to just being a bit bored of it all.

But when I heard one of my favourite directors, David Fincher was going to be directing a US remake (US in the loosest sense, this is set in Sweden, just like the book), my interest was renewed.

Along with Fincher came screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs Of New York and the recent Moneyball), and after I read an interview with him saying he wasn't even going to be watching the original film I was sold.

Unlike so many sequels, there wasn't that much of a backlash towards it either. In fact, the only negativity came from the director of the original, Niels Arden Opev. And after watching Fincher's remake, I can see why he was so peeved. It's because he was totally outclassed. The new Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is far superior in every way to the original.

For those few people, who haven't read any of the books, the plot goes a bit like this. Disgraced reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig, not even attempting an accent, thankfully) is offered a 'job' of uncovering the death of Henrik Vanger's (Christopher Plummer) niece, whilst investigating the whole Vanger clan, under the auspices that he is writing a book about the elder Vanger. As he starts to unravel the mystery, he is aided by his new research assistant, the very troubled Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), and the truth starts to emerge.

Even though I didn't think a great deal of the original film, the role of Lisbeth Salander was played to perfection by Noomi Rapace, and the odds were really stacked against Rooney Mara to top that. But I'm happy to report she did. While it's impossible to say who the best Salander is, Mara's certainly holds it's own, albeit not quite as rough as Rapace's. But I was very surprised that Fincher found an actress as game as Mara. The role calls for a hell of a lot, and she bought something to the table that a lot of actresses today could never do.

Craig is also great as Blomkvist. It speaks volumes of his range that the name 'Bond' never once crossed my mind, only during the films opening titles, where Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross cover Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' with an industrial edge, and that seemed almost like an 'anti-Bond' credit sequence. Craig plays a quite unlikable character at times, but he still manages to keep the viewer on his side.

The rest of the cast are solid, in particular Christopher Plummer as Henrik, and his nephew Martin, Stellan Skarsgard. Also, it's always good to see Steven Berkoff on the big screen.

If I had to find fault with the film, is that sometimes it moved a bit too quickly, especially when it comes to character development. I'm aware that the film was over 2 and a half hours long, but a bit more time when Salander arrives to assist Blomkvist would have been greatly appreciated. Any other fault would be just comparing the film to the book, and you can never do a 100% accurate job on adaptations.

Fincher's direction, like The Social Network before that, is not as flashy as it has been in the past. Whether that's a change in style, or just the material he's working with, it shows some great variation either way. That's not staying the film isn't stylishly shot though, pretty much every set piece in the film is done so much better than the original.

As of writing, the film has done solid business in the States (the only place it counts), but hasn't exactly raked it in, but a sequel is in the works in 2013, obviously being The Girl Who Played With Fire, where the rot really began to set in for me. If they can keep the leads, the director and the writing skills of Zaillian, they may be able to make something more coherent out of the source material. I certainly hope they can.

****
Aside from running ahead too far with some character development, this remake far surpasses the original in my opinion, and manages to stick closer to the book, whilst being it's own film. A great performance from Craig, and a stunning one from Rooney Mara also makes this a must see.