The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

My Grade:  B

I have seen the original Swedish film that was made in 2009 with this title and enjoyed it.  So, when I heard about this remake, or American interpretation of the novel (which I have not read), I was more intrigued than excited.  It’s the same way I felt about Let Me In, the 2010 version of the 2008 Swedish film, Let The Right One In.  It appears that we, as Americans, like to remake really good Swedish films.  Or maybe we like to adapt really good novels, but the Swedes always beat us to it.  Either way, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is worth watching.

    

When I heard about the remake, I knew that if there was an american director that would do well with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it was David Fincher.  He has the right style for it.  He has an eye for the creepy and this story is beyond creepy.  I am not sure I agree with his approach to this material, though.  Judging by the title, you would think that the film would be about the girl that has a dragon tattoo on her back... Lisbeth Salander.  But it’s not.  It focuses more on Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig).  To be fair, I am not sure how much of this was Fincher’s decision.  It could have been the studio’s decision, some producer’s decision, or the writer’s decision... or, most likely, a combination of all of these.  Whomever it was, though, made a poor decision.

    

The film certainly starts with its focus on Mikael, but it sort of shifts, as the film goes on, to focus on the much more interesting character of Lisbeth (Rooney Mara, whom we will get to later).  But, at the end (I promise this isn’t a spoiler), the focus is back on Mikael.  His character is simply not that interesting.  He’s a journalist who is having an affair and has gotten into some trouble as a result of doing his job.  That character is not as intriguing as a journalist that uses illegal practices to get the story at any cost; but has social and economical problems for which she is forced to compensate by being exploited (in somewhat disturbing ways) in order to survive.  This is not a character we have seen before.

    

And this remarkably complex character is played unashamedly by the surprisingly talented, yet relatively unknown, Rooney Mara.  You may recognize her from the opening scene of The Social Network (also directed by Fincher) when she debates with her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, Mark Zuckerberg about finals clubs, crew teams, and other assorted topics in rapid-fire fashion.  She has also been in the most recent entry in the long series of Nightmare on Elm Street films and a supporting role opposite Michael Cera in the not-so-successful comedy Youth in Revolt.  None of these really put her on the map, but her performance as Lisbeth in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo certainly will.  This role requires her to be stoic at times, and to be absolutely engulfed by powerfully crippling emotion.  She even has some funny lines that hit because of her timing and delivery.  It comes as no surprise to me that she garnered a Golden Globe nomination for this performance while the film has a whole didn’t.  I’m sure she will also grab an Oscar nomination.

    

Mara holds this film together as it goes, but it is terribly slow.  First of all, the film is a staggering 2 hours and 38 minutes long which is very hard to take, given the extremely dark nature of the film.  Part of the reason it is so long is because (as I mentioned before) the focus is on Mikael at the beginning and end.  Cutting out these parts of his story, or shortening them, would allow the film to jump into the main story (solving the murder mystery) much more quickly and get Lisbeth and Mikael together sooner.  This is important because their personalities play very well off each other and create some great tension - that’s where the real story is.

    

It’s hard to criticize the story too much, though because it is based on an international bestseller with a script penned by one of the best in modern cinema, Steve Zallian (Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, American Gangster, Moneyball).  The problem lies in the reason why it takes many days to read a novel and around 2 hours (or more, in this case) to watch a movie.  You just can’t squeeze everything in there and, when you try to, it makes for a slow moving process.  And the average American movie-goer does not like slow.  Well-crafted slow is still slow.

    

Overall, the film is good, but too slow and shifts the focus from Lisbeth to the less interesting Mikael.  The Swedish version stays with Lisbeth more consistently, making it more interesting and a better choice if you want to see one of these films.  Both are very brutal and will make you cringe, but it seems necessary so that you can fully grasp the emotions that the girl with the dragon tattoo has gone through and is going through.  This is not a feel-good Christmas film, but it is not a film you will soon forget. 

SIDENOTE:  David Fincher’s films always have elaborately and beautifully done credit sequences and this one is no different.  It is hard to describe but it sets you up perfectly for the overall mood of the film.  I had to fight not to applaud at the end of the opening credits.  Beautifully twisted stuff.