It has been said that there are two types of people in this world: those with tattoos and those who are afraid of people with tattoos. That may be true, because I am certainly afraid of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This tattooed girl is Lisbeth Salander, played by Rooney Mara, a cyberpunk computer hacker with a haunted past who is hired to help recently disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist, portrayed by Daniel Craig, to solve a 40 year old missing person case.
In last year’s hit film, The Social Network, Mara played side-character Erica Albright and her scene in the bar with Jesse Eisenberg’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg which introduced the film was one the many brilliant dialogues of the movie. In Dragon Tattoo, Mara is rejoined by The Social Network director David Fincher who crafts an eerie, yet powerful story and allows Mara to take the headlining role in one of 2011’s most intriguing films.
Dragoon Tattoo is an interesting crime investigation, on par with Fincher’s other detective thrillers, Zodiac and Se7en. In it, charismatic billionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) hires Craig’s journalist Mikael to investigate the disappearance of his niece 40 years earlier. Mikael reluctantly takes the job because Vanger promises him evidence to prove he was right in a controversial lawsuit which left his reputation discredited. Along the way, Mikael hires an assistant, Mara’s damaged Lisbeth, and together they cut through the tangled web of lies weaved by the Vanger family.
The film has a phenomenal cast, showcasing not only the acting talents of Mara, Craig, and Plummer, but of Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, and Yorick van Wageningen as well. When a franchise begins as an internationally best-selling book series, is adapted into a critically acclaimed 2009 Swedish film trilogy, and then remade by Hollywood two years later, it is hard to avoid comparisons. This being my first exposure to the series, I don’t really have the perspective of comparison.
Yet, from what I can gather from other online reviews, the characters in the remake seem to be deeper and more intriguing than their original counterparts. However, the emotions of the characters in the original are more obviously simmering right under the surface, while in Fincher’s version there is a subtlety that almost has to be intentionally sought out by the audience.
Noomi Rapace (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) and Michael Nyqvist (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) played the leads in the original and apparently gave stellar performances. Although, according to critics who have seen both it seems as though Mara has improved upon Rapace's performance by giving Lisbeth a deeper sense of vulnerability, while Craig’s character portrayal isn’t as realistic as Nyqvist's, since Craig possess that natural James Bond charisma which makes him seem so much more comfortable in danger than he should be.
Dragon Tattoo is also much longer than it needed to be. And while you will stay interesting throughout, you will certainly grow restless at times. This is in part due to the fact that this is a primarily dialogue-driven film, which also means you have to pay close attention, but it is also because Mara and Craig don’t meet and start to truly solve the case in earnest until almost an hour into the movie. It is during this somewhat unnecessary introductory first hour that we are given the back-stories of the characters: the Vanger family and their squabblings, Mikael and his accusations of libel, and finally Lisbeth and her dark past which consists of not one, but two rape scenes, each incredibly graphic and ruthlessly brutal.
Okay, the rape scenes. Do they help us understand the character of Lisbeth and how she sees the world and trusts people? Absolutely. Were they necessary? As pivotal parts of both the character and the book, although not really the plot as a whole, I can understand an argument of necessity. However, I do not personally think that they needed to be so violent and vicious. The rape scenes, combined with the other sex scenes in the film (I suppose there was language and blood too, but those never really bother me as much) make me wonder whether an “NC-17” rating would have been more appropriate than an “R.”
Returning to the film itself, once the missing person case is solved, the movie continues for another 20 minutes or so, concluding Mikael’s lawsuit storyline. An epilogue understandable in a book, but one that seems out of place in the film and seems all the more drawn out at the end of this almost 3 hour movie.
Ultimately, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is one of the best films of 2011. However, it is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic to the extreme, and long to boot, so you need a particular kind of endurance to last through it all. But if you do, you leave having seen quite an intriguing film.
The Final Word: Go buy a ticket if you think you possess the courage to do so.
In last year’s hit film, The Social Network, Mara played side-character Erica Albright and her scene in the bar with Jesse Eisenberg’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg which introduced the film was one the many brilliant dialogues of the movie. In Dragon Tattoo, Mara is rejoined by The Social Network director David Fincher who crafts an eerie, yet powerful story and allows Mara to take the headlining role in one of 2011’s most intriguing films.
Dragoon Tattoo is an interesting crime investigation, on par with Fincher’s other detective thrillers, Zodiac and Se7en. In it, charismatic billionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) hires Craig’s journalist Mikael to investigate the disappearance of his niece 40 years earlier. Mikael reluctantly takes the job because Vanger promises him evidence to prove he was right in a controversial lawsuit which left his reputation discredited. Along the way, Mikael hires an assistant, Mara’s damaged Lisbeth, and together they cut through the tangled web of lies weaved by the Vanger family.
The film has a phenomenal cast, showcasing not only the acting talents of Mara, Craig, and Plummer, but of Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, and Yorick van Wageningen as well. When a franchise begins as an internationally best-selling book series, is adapted into a critically acclaimed 2009 Swedish film trilogy, and then remade by Hollywood two years later, it is hard to avoid comparisons. This being my first exposure to the series, I don’t really have the perspective of comparison.
Yet, from what I can gather from other online reviews, the characters in the remake seem to be deeper and more intriguing than their original counterparts. However, the emotions of the characters in the original are more obviously simmering right under the surface, while in Fincher’s version there is a subtlety that almost has to be intentionally sought out by the audience.
Noomi Rapace (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) and Michael Nyqvist (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) played the leads in the original and apparently gave stellar performances. Although, according to critics who have seen both it seems as though Mara has improved upon Rapace's performance by giving Lisbeth a deeper sense of vulnerability, while Craig’s character portrayal isn’t as realistic as Nyqvist's, since Craig possess that natural James Bond charisma which makes him seem so much more comfortable in danger than he should be.
Dragon Tattoo is also much longer than it needed to be. And while you will stay interesting throughout, you will certainly grow restless at times. This is in part due to the fact that this is a primarily dialogue-driven film, which also means you have to pay close attention, but it is also because Mara and Craig don’t meet and start to truly solve the case in earnest until almost an hour into the movie. It is during this somewhat unnecessary introductory first hour that we are given the back-stories of the characters: the Vanger family and their squabblings, Mikael and his accusations of libel, and finally Lisbeth and her dark past which consists of not one, but two rape scenes, each incredibly graphic and ruthlessly brutal.
Okay, the rape scenes. Do they help us understand the character of Lisbeth and how she sees the world and trusts people? Absolutely. Were they necessary? As pivotal parts of both the character and the book, although not really the plot as a whole, I can understand an argument of necessity. However, I do not personally think that they needed to be so violent and vicious. The rape scenes, combined with the other sex scenes in the film (I suppose there was language and blood too, but those never really bother me as much) make me wonder whether an “NC-17” rating would have been more appropriate than an “R.”
Returning to the film itself, once the missing person case is solved, the movie continues for another 20 minutes or so, concluding Mikael’s lawsuit storyline. An epilogue understandable in a book, but one that seems out of place in the film and seems all the more drawn out at the end of this almost 3 hour movie.
Ultimately, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is one of the best films of 2011. However, it is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic to the extreme, and long to boot, so you need a particular kind of endurance to last through it all. But if you do, you leave having seen quite an intriguing film.
The Final Word: Go buy a ticket if you think you possess the courage to do so.
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