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Rooney Mara shines in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (8/10)
Musgrave, Gateway, Suncoast, SHELLY BEACH
Review
Patrick Compton
This film, rather like its Swedish-produced predecessor, stands or falls by the presentation of its leading character, Lisbeth Salander, a dragon-tattooed, eyebrow- and nose-pierced avenger with some very serious attitude.
Salander is one of the outstanding characters in recent crime fiction, and Noomi Rapace certainly looked the part in the Swedish original, but I rate Rooney Mara’s effort even higher because she has succeeded not only in conveying the look, the anger and the I’m-against-the-world attitude, but, crucially, her humanity as well. Hers is a career-blossoming performance and the essential reason for seeing this David Fincher film.
This is a smooth, high-powered Hollywood remake but fortunately Fincher, who has a distinguished history in directing serial-killer movies (Seven), has chosen not to resituate this film in Raymond Chandler territory in California. Instead, despite the largely English and American cast (who all speak English with a vaguely Scandinavian accent), he has set the film in Stockholm and the frozen north of Sweden, sticking faithfully to the story and the settings that were so memorably a part of Stieg Larsson’s novel.
The film feels sleeker and more pointed than its Swedish predecessor, despite its 150-minute running time, because Fincher and scriptwriter Steve Zaillian have cut out much of the detail relating to the disputes in the Vanger family, focusing more intensely on the relationship between investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (a suitably rumpled Daniel Craig) and computer-hacker Salander.
Blomkvist, down on his luck after losing a libel case against a powerful industrialist, has been called in by another industrialist, the ageing patriarch Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer – brilliant in a small but key role), who is desperate to solve a family tragedy before he dies.
Vanger’s niece, Harriet, disappeared more than two decades previously, and the old man is convinced a member of his disreputable family – full of Nazi sympathisers – was responsible for her murder. Under the guise of writing a history of the family, Blomkvist is employed to finger the killer – if he can.
That’s the basic story, but it’s really a sideline in this film, which is more interested in giving us a memorable portrait of a young woman who has been abused by men all her life and is now filled with hatred for them. There is one brilliantly realised but very disturbing sequence – portraying her relationship with her disgusting ward of court – that illustrates why Salander is the way she is.
Just how Salander’s attitude subtly changes as she begins to work with Blomkvist on the case is a tribute to Mara’s finely honed performance.
Another improvement on the original film is that Blomkvist’s long-time lover at the magazine he worked at, Berger (Robin Wright), is much more sympathetically represented. This lends the final scene of the film its poignancy and power.
It’s good to know that Sony Pictures has given the green light to the two remaining sequels, but it will be particularly important for them to nail down the same cast as well as director Fincher and scriptwriter Zaillian.
