The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

UK Release Date. 26 December 2011
Certification. 18
Running Time. 2 hours 38 min
Director. David Fincher
Cast. Stephen Berkoff, Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Joely Richardson, Stellan Skarsgård, Goran Visnjic, Robin Wright.
Rating. 70%

Review.

The fundamental problem with David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo adaptation of Stieg Larsson's debut novel (originally titled Män som hatar kvinnor) is that the Danish director, Niels Arden Oplev, got there first. Despite a modest production budget, Yellow Bird's production starring Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace is a seminal Nordic Noir trilogy.

There's nothing inherently wrong with Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; indeed, the film earned five Academy Award nominations, including a nomination for Rooney Mara in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Fincher, who has a proven track record with brooding, psycho-thrillers [Se7en, Zodiac and Gone Girl], working from a script by Steven Zaillian has likely created a film that is more cinematic and certainly more cinematically viable than the original adaptation. Yet, Niels Arden Oplev's version is bolder, more daring and far edgier than Fincher's austere production, despite the fact that Fincher's film is arguably more graphic.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo centres on the Swedish journalist, Mikael Blomqvist’s (Daniel Craig) investigation into the disappearance of a young woman who went missing 40 years ago. Blomqvist enlists the help of the investigator and computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to solve the unsolved mystery.  

Fincher routinely takes on a clinical and even deceptively disinterested perspective, but this coolness belies the passion that is always bubbling beneath the surface. His direction is obsessive, meticulous, nigh maniacal, and the director lets Stieg Larsson’s story unfold with great verve, breathless economy and the odd tweak to the novel’s narrative.

Daniel Craig is impressive, as is Rooney Mara, delivering a performance here, easily the best of her career. However, Mara's best still can't hold a candle to that of Noomi Rapace, whose three-film performance as Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish production was near perfection.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a good film, a film that stands on its own two feet, even for those who've seen the original Swedish version or, for that matter, those who simply are quite familiar with Stieg Larsson's ‘Millennium’ trilogy. It marked a return to the uglier side of life for Fincher and while the film can feel a little incomplete, it’s still a dark, compelling and brutal watch. But beware - originally planned as the first entry in a trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo turned out to be a one-off outing for Fincher, and the less said about the Fede Alvarez 2018 reboot, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, the better.