THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs

Grade: B-
Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Joel Richardson, Yorick Van Wagenen
Screenplay by Steven Zaillian
Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson
Directed by David Fincher

David Fincher has, to say the least, had an interesting career. A one time music video director, shooting for stars such as Madonna and Sting, Fincher made the transition to features by stepping into the shoes once inhabited by Ridley Scott and James Cameron, and promptly discovered that the only thing he got from trying on the legendary filmmaker's footwear was a persistent, burning fungus, which was given the unimaginative name Alien3, because “Alieneses” is technically not a word. The film was greeted with all of the warmth and enthusiasm of the 1988 Mondale/Ferraro campaign, and perhaps its most vehement detractor was Fincher himself, who was ambivalent about ever directing again after this debacle.

But direct he did. With critically acclaimed hits such as Se7en and the surreal cult hit/major world religion Fight Club, he had decidedly stepped out of the shadow of his inauspicious debut and into the role of respected artist. This was cemented by two back to back Oscar nominations, departing from his usual signature, bleak, shocking style with 2009's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a sad but romantic, poignant and ultimately life affirming melodrama, and 2010's The Social Network, the brilliantly insightful and satirical look at the rise of Facebook. At the top of his game now as a seemingly perennial Oscar nominee, Fincher decided to return to his darker roots by tackling Stieg Larsson's bestseller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which had already been adapted into a successful Swedish film with two sequels. Since American audiences love to see films based on books they have read, but refuse to see films that require them to read, an English language version seemed like a sure thing commercially, and Fincher seemed the perfect choice to make it.

The film begins with a dazzling opening credits sequence which answers the question: what if David Berkowitz had directed a James Bond movie?” set to a cover of Led Zeppelin’s The Immigrant Song, after which we jump into the story. Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a journalist for the Swedish political magazine Millennium, has just lost a libel case involving allegations published about billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström. This is likely to be at best the end of Blomkvist’s career, at worst the start of a prison sentence. Meanwhile, we shift to our title character, one Lisbeth Salander, played here by Rooney Mara, whom you may remember as the girl who dumped Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Lisbeth is a tattooed (obviously), Goth surveillance agent with more piercings than eyebrows, who has been contracted to investigate Blomkvist. Salander delivers a comprehensive report on Blomkvist. Who wants to know about Blomkvist? Why, 82 year-old Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), the former CEO of the Vanger Corporation, does, that's who. Blomkvist is invited to meet Vanger, who hires him to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet. Vanger not only believes that Harriet was murdered, but that a member of the Vanger family is responsible. He shows Blomkvist a small collection of framed, pressed flowers that Harriet had given him on his birthday since she was eight years old. In the attic is an even larger collection of the framed flowers he has received at every birthday since her disappearance in 1966. He suspects that the sender could be Harriet's murderer.

Meanwhile, Salander is in some trouble of her own. It seems that she is a ward of the state, and her new guardian, one Nils Bjurman (Yorick Van Wagnenen), attended the Herman Cain school of How To Win Friends and Influence People, and forces her to engage in numerous unspeakable (but apparently quite filmable) activities in order to get her monthly allowance. That is, until she decides to turn the tables. We soon learn that Lisbeth is more than capable of taking care of herself, and that you do not want to get on this girl's bad side (Fincher seems particularly determined to discover if actress Rooney Mara actually has a bad side, and dutifully photographs every inch of her body, multiple times, in search of it.).

Upon learning that Vanger had him investigated, and utterly blown away by how much information was discovered, Blomkvist becomes very interested in the woman who did this investigation, and before long, he has hired Lisbeth to assist him in solving the case. The two work surprisingly well together, and quickly decide that in the interest of adding even more nudity to the film, they decide they should start having regular sex.
What could have easily been a tawdry exercise in exploitation, under the hands of a masterful artist like Fincher, becomes an extremely stylish tawdry exercise in exploitation. This is not a movie for the squeamish, and if you are easily turned off by graphic depictions of rape, brutal murders or dead cats, well, frankly, you seem like a well adjusted individual. But you're not – I'm on to you. YOU read the book, didn't you? Because this is Utah, and nothing is unsavory unless it has a bold, capitalized letter attached to it. Eh - don't try to justify yourself.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is quite an involving mystery, and the story that unravels before us is like a car wreck or a Lady Gaga concert – disturbing, but you can't take your eyes off it. The saga of the Vanger family, and poor Harriet, is a deeply involving tale – or at least it was in the original Swedish film. Unfortunately, Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List), somehow manage to pull off the rather astounding feat of short changing the story at the expense of developing characters while at the same time short changing the character development in order to expedite the story. The first act moves slowly and deliberately, introducing us to the people and situations, and by the time we get to the second act, Fincher seems to realize that he has to move quickly so he can move on to the third act, which he jumps through as quickly as possible at the expense of coherence, so he can get to his extended, slightly new ending which was created entirely so that YOU, who read the book and loved it but would never dream of seeing a movie with that letter attached to it, will be driven crazy wondering what he changed and buy a pair of dark sunglasses and go to a midnight showing alone so that you can then have the privilege of saying “That's it?” and then denying you ever saw the film, until one day while talking about the book you accidentally refer to the character of Henrik as “Captain Von Trapp” in front of your entire book club, including the Bishop's wife.

The impressive cast turns in stellar performances, in particular Mara, who really rises to the challenge of the role, and the choice by the actress and director to add a level of vulnerability to the character in no way makes her any less strong – in fact, seeing that she is capable of being terrified but still has the courage to face the challenges set before her actually makes Lisbeth or more rounded and admirable figure, and this is by far the strongest aspect of this version of the story. Mara is quite an engaging presence, and may get a well deserved Oscar nomination. Daniel Craig, quite possibly the most versatile leading man in Hollywood today, delivers yet another solid performance, but this isn't an easy character to really like, and frankly, his role in Cowboys & Aliens had a great deal more nuance and depth. Plummer, who could deliver a dramatic reading of the phone book and provoke strong emotional response, is terrific, and adds greatly to the film, while SPOILER ALERT – DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ACTUALLY HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK, NO NOT YOU, WE ALREADY KNOW YOU READ IT, I'M TALKING TO ANOTHER READER, Stellan Skarsgaard makes a delicious evil, if utterly predictable, villain. This is the problem with murder mysteries on film. Just as you could always tell in advance who did it on any given episode of Murder, She wrote by peaking at the TV Guide listing and checking to see who the top billed guest star was, far too many movies give away the identity of the killer simply by virtue of the fact that any cinematically astute audience member find themselves thinking “why is he in this movie if he doesn't do anything? Ahhhh . . . “

There is a lot of skill to this film – the acting is top notch, the cinematography and editing slick, and Fincher really knows how to build tension. The creepy but effective musical score by Trent Renzor and Atticus Ross sets just the right mood, and in fact, after listening to it long enough you might want to kill someone yourself. The extended denouement, which may be the longest since The Return of the King, could certainly have been trimmed down, but Fincher's ending provokes surprising emotions, and a lot of this is due to Mara's performance.

On the whole, this is neither a terrific film nor a terrible film. It's just a solid but disappointing and completely uninspired effort from a skilled director who leaves us feeling that he wanted a break from stretching himself as an artist and to just sit back and make the audience squirm in the way that he does so well. It's just too bad that he was satisfied by setting this sights that low.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is rated a well deserved R for nudity (incidentally, Mark Zuckerberg wasn't lying in his blog), strong sexual content, violence, profanity, and Swedish names.