Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by Doctor S — 09 Jun 2013

There's no doubt that David Fincher is among the very best modern filmmakers at telling mysteries, as evidenced by Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac, and to a lesser extent Se7en which has ardent fans but I'm not among them. Unfolds methodically like a good book, he takes his time piecing together fragments of information as disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by the patriarch of an isolated island community in Sweden to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of his favored granddaughter Harriet who vanished without trace 40 years ago. He eventually gains a resourceful assistant, a secretive 23-year-old outlaw/ward of the state who only speaks in terse sentences named Lisbeth Salander. The plot is full of juicy twists that keep you scratching your head, and through Mikael's interviews we get to know the big unhappy extended family on the island which provides plenty of suspicion. I was disappointed that the culprit follows the worn-out movie cliche of appearing to be among the most helpful, but then in turn gratified that path is not the end of the story.

This is the first movie where I've actually liked Daniel Craig who does a great job as Mikael. Lisbeth's backstory is more bumpy, taking too much time detailing her encounters with her salacious social worker who controls her stipend. This includes a disturbingly aggressive rape scene, and while it helps illustrate Lisbeth's motivation to help Mikael catch a man who may have murdered Harriet and other girls (her reaction to this reveal sends a quick chill down the spine), I think is unnecessarily graphically presented. Then there are big character inconsistencies that don't add up - if she has the know-how and grandmaster hacking ability to pull off the final swindle, why does she have to give a blow job to get her welfare check? That kind of major oversight bugs me and I had this in my mind at 3.5 stars, but after watching parts of it a second time, the mystery and investigative elements which make up most of the movie are so well done that I will reward with a 4-spot. Fittingly bittersweet ending too, and I'd like to see Fincher & co. adapt the second story.