David Fincher has done it again!
No matter what anyone says, it is clear that Fincher is a talented and fantastic director. With this new edition of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he has not only brought justice to the original book, he has also provided a fresh and sleek version off of the Swedish film. The movie is sexy, daring, disturbing, grungy, and yet, the toughness of it is at just the right caliber.
Daniel Craig, in an impressive performance, plays Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist of Stockholm who is asked to solve a years-old mystery. The man who calls him in is Henrik Vanger, who is still struggling to uncover what happened to his missing niece. Blomkvist accepts the case hoping to bring a positive image to his name, only to uncover trails leading to horrific serial killings on a mysterious island full of anti-Semites. Once the story takes off, Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara), becomes Blomkvist's assistant, and that is what truly triggers the movie to get to the brilliant state that it achieves.
Everything about the movie, from the beginning credits with haunting versions of the two main characters in black liquid selves, to the ear-crunching score, and to the last ending scene, was terrific. After seeing most of the Best Picture nominees for this year, I am honestly shocked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was not included in the race. Fincher does have his style, which may rub some people the wrong way, but his directing skills in this were precise and necessarily so. It takes some time to set up the central story, in both this and the Swedish version, but once we get there, Fincher recreates a compelling version of this bestselling story.
That being said, the best part of this film was the title woman, Rooney Mara. The film she made her debut in was Fincher's The Social Network, as Mark Zuckerberg's bitter ex-girlfriend. In that, and in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she shines. And I'm not just talking about her gelled hair. She provides a reason as to why the novel and the films are named after Lisbeth. She is a black widow, absolutely dangerous and sexy in the strangest way. The difference between Rooney Mara and Noomi Rapace, who plays Lisbeth in the Swedish films, is subtle, but one could sense it if they thought it through hard enough. Mara seemed to take the character from a more confident perspective, abrasive and explicit, whereas Rapace was more reclusive and mysterious. Rooney Mara was physically tough, from the top of her spiky black mohawk all the way down to her chained-up combat boots. Rapace seemed to hide behind her hair more, like an emo kid in middle school.
Emotionally, Rooney Mara as Lisbeth was demanding, forcing the viewers to feel her pent-up rage from being raped and beaten by men. This is what made her connection to Blomkvist make sense, as they both fought to destroy a misogynistic killer. There was something bittersweet about their relationship. It couldn't be called a normal relationship in any way, and Lisbeth's feelings for Mikael couldn't be called love. However, Lisbeth's hate-filled self seems to melt slightly when she gives us the most revealing information about herself after making breakfast for Mikael: "I like working with you." And Mikael says it right back, without even thinking about it. And that's when we realize it as well: we love them working together, and we want to see more of it.
In all honestly, Mara is the driving force of the film, but even without her, the story was thrilling and exciting to watch unfold. Audiences may find the revealing of the killer very normal, and in truth, it was. However, that was not a hindrance. The missing niece becomes just a scene of a three-act play, and it was a play that was simple to stay with the entire time. For seeing the Swedish version and knowing the twist, I still found myself clenching my teeth near the end, waiting for Lisbeth to work her magic in ways the audience came to believe she was capable of. The only part of the movie that was slightly distracting was the Nazism aspect, and Fincher seemed to struggle with presenting this grim standpoint in a more fluid way. He had no problem with putting more difficult themes in, such as rape and murder, so that was a notable accomplishment.
With Mara's Oscar-worthy performance and the icy, European setting that combined extraordinarily well with the disturbing storyline, Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was on fire, ignited with a fantastic cast and a genuinely horrifying mystery.
