Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by Halfwelshman — 20 Jan 2012

As much as I adored the first, Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel, I was intrigued, for once, by a big-budget Hollywood remake as soon as David Fincher was announced as director. A jet-black murder-mystery which analyses the darker aspects of human nature seemed the perfect project for the director of Fight Club and Zodiac to helm. In a lot of ways, Fincher doesn't disappoint. Like all his films, it looks great, flows well and keeps you engaged throughout. Rooney Mara is quite captivating as the new Lisbeth Salander, and smartly has a different interpretation of the character from the acclaimed performance of Noomi Rapace. Stellan Skarsgard and Christopher Plummer also impress as Henrik and Martin Vanger respectively, both either equalling or improving on the performances of their Swedish film counterparts Sven-Bertil Taube and Peter Haber. The rest of the cast are decent enough, apart from one extreme disappointment - Daniel Craig. He doesn't give a particularly bad performance as such, but is completely miscast as Mikael Blomkvist. Blomkvist should be an everyman - someone you wouldn't look twice at in the street, someone who's perhaps put on the pounds in recent years as he approaches middle age. You should not cast an international sex symbol as such a character, and the notion that Daniel Craig "gained weight" for the role is laughable - he still looks too lean and Bondlike to portray a slightly-past-his-prime journalist. There are some truly stunning sequences in the film, particularly the opening titles with accompanying cover version of Led Zepplin's 'Immigrant Song', which resembles a strange hybrid of a James Bond title sequence and a Marilyn Manson video, and sets the right tone for the film. The shots of the arctic Swedish landscapes are also stunning, and credit must be given to cinematographers Jeff Cronenweth and Fredrik Backar for complete mastery of their art. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross deliver another great soundtrack in their second collaboration with Fincher - their eerie, dark, electronica-driven music is perfect to reflect the personalities and state of mind of the numerous fractured, tortured souls we follow throughout the film. Also worth noting is a very unexpected and very clever use of Enya's Orinoco Flow in a key scene in the film - I won't spoil it for you, but suffice to say, the result is one of the funniest, yet most utterly terrifying film horror moments in recent memory.

Unfortunately, despite all the undeniable talent on display, the result of this story getting the Hollywood treatment (something I truly hoped would be avoided) is it has been over-sentimentalised. The main body of the story is as dark, and in some cases darker than the original film, but as soon as the main plot has been wrapped up, Fincher unashamedly tags a slushy, romantic resolution onto the story. I liked the ambiguous ending of the original film - why, oh why, David, did you think it was necessary for Lisbeth to become open about her emotions? She's a deeply complex, damaged and disturbed individual who'll likely never be able to lead a normal life, yet you've completely bypassed that fact and shattered the illusion with a rather incongruous finale that wouldn't look out of place in a Richard Curtis movie. David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is good entertainment - dark, engaging and with some great performances, but the miscasting of Daniel Craig and some fundamental misjudgements in tone do ruin the magic a little. At the end of the day, it just isn't in the same league as Niels Arden Oplev's delightfully macabre original adaptation. Perhaps in the inevitable sequels, some of these issues can be addressed and improved upon, and I look forward to more of Rooney Mara's punky reinterpretation of Lisbeth, though sadly now we're stuck with Daniel Craig's simply wrong "Bond-kvist" for another two installments.