The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
For the most part, David Fincher's new adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is identical to the
original film. A few minor substitutions work their way into the script, most notably with dialogue, physical
characteristics, jobs, and bits of backstory that are added or excised; but the essential plot is still present.
The use of spoken English is particularly helpful for American audiences (despite fouling up the logical
side of printed materials, character nationality, and Epson/Mac product placement), and the use of
familiar character actors aids sorting out the extensive assemblage of suspects. The sense of originality,
uniqueness and suspense has diminished, however, largely because of the sheer reach and popularity of
the first theatrical adaptation.
Millennium Magazine journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is sued for libel when he prints a scathing
article about billionaire industrialist hotshot Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Even though Mikael's credibility is
shot, the retired head of the Vanger Corporation approaches the investigator to research the murder of
his 16-year-old great-niece, some 40 years earlier. Vanger is convinced it was someone in the family,
most of who still live unsociably on an unfriendly island in Sweden. "I'm quickly losing track of who's who,"
Blomkvist comments, as the family is large and reclusive; providing information to a stranger is also not
high on their priority list. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a surveillance agent and
researcher who provided investigative materials on Blomkvist to Vanger, is recruited by Mikael to aid him
in his search for the culprit - believed to be a serial killer targeting Jewish women and performing ritualistic
mutilations.
While the actors all perform admirably, especially those with more challenging, revealing roles (the
striking character development and raw power of their actions being a particular highlight of the series of
books), the unavoidable element that follows this take is the severity and extremeness of the sexual
violence. It's no less potent, even for viewers familiar with what happens, but more likely to incite
disputation for no other reason than its basis as an American film (foreign films garner a certain leniency
when depicting questionable sexual material). The studio is even trying to push the envelope with the
poster art. While the novel is purposeful in its rendering and authenticity towards rape, coupled with
abuse of power (more evident in the original title "Men Who Hate Women"), these moments are
overwhelming on camera - to the point that the controversial scenes will likely take attention away from
the murder mystery at hand. And the dark, cryptic, intense unraveling of clues is where the real thrills
await. The white-knuckle climax is shocking, draining and unexpected, wrapping up a thriller worthy of the
cinematographic focus.
Perhaps most puzzling of all is the opening credits, which demonstrates a bizarre mixture of H.R. Giger's
art, Spider-man's Venom, computer components, thick black oil and the human body, resembling a
James Bond music video title sequence (James Bondage?). It doesn't fit the rest of the movie, and
instead of setting up a more gothic, disturbing, modern twist on author Stieg Larsson's epic, it builds a
greater rift in the deceptive normalcy of the initial settings. Trent Reznor's accompanying score, with
pulsing, artificial sounds and electronic beats, is much less sincere than the standard orchestral work
more suited to crime pictures. Although the character development, with two extremely contrasting
individuals and unrelated situations, is astounding (chiefly with the strong female protagonist of Salander),
the separate nature of their stories feels even more distant. But that is insignificant compared to the
intrusive expansion of the film's denouement, which is noticeably longwinded, stuffed with details, and
drags out the satisfaction of the big reveal and resolution for the killer. Whether or not this is more faithful
to the novel, 2009's foreign-language version was smarter to keep the immediacy and energy of the
solution fresh by abridging the falling action.