Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by Dillinger P — 04 Nov 2014

Remakes these days are usually panned before release and almost sentenced to eternal slander, before even making their release. This is no more true than when recent foriegn films are remade, no more truer than when it was announced that barely after the original remake of steig larsons millenium phenominon was shown in british cinemas, the Americans had green lit a remake.

The fury of fans could be heard for months, "How dare they?" cried fan boys and girls. Then David Fincher released a red band trailer, with Trent Reznor and Karen O's pounding take on Immigrant Song flashing a barrage of violent and gorgeous images at our eyes.

It was hard not to eat our own words. It's hard to judge a remake, especially one released so close to the original. One will always compare constantly and ultimately personal favorite will reside one or the other.

But just as the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, had a very slow build up but successful time at the box office, it is in my most honest of opinions David Fincher's take is far superior. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is forced to step down from his position at well regarded magazine Millenium after he loses a court battle to a very powerful business man called Vernnerstrom.

Soon after he is approached by an elderly man called Henrik Vangor. Vangor proposes that Mikael stays at his family estate in order to help solve a murder case of his grand daughter Harriot, that took place in the 60's.

Mikael soon falls into trouble and has to recruit the assistant Lisbeth Salander, the hacker who gathered information for Henrik on Mikael. The duo soon find themselves tied up in a family feud, a serial killer and a rapist parole officer.

The previous, is just the tip of the iceberg as the film clocks in at a stonking 2 hours and 40 minutes. But unlike the original, this one does not burn slowly, it thunders through, allowing it to tell more of a story and have less computer nonsense on screen at any given time.

This gives us more time with the plot and the characters. Fincher also decides to study the relationship between Lisabeth and Mikael in greater detail, which as im led to believe is more faithful to the books.

The cast are all top notch, Rooney Mara is perfect as Lisabeth, giving a detached and haunting performance, that ultimately wins our hearts over from the get go, her constant struggle continues to the bitter end and we as the audience cant help but be with her every step of the way.

Daniel Craig is the master of under acting and its perfect here, little mannerisms here and there, like how Mikael wears his glasses when he doesnt need them or his inability to use a mac as quick as Lisabeth, really lend well to the character, making him feel like a character rather than a performance.

Stellan Skargard also puts in a powerful performance as Harriots Brother, aiding Mikael as best as he can. The most stand out however is Christopher Plummer as Henrik, he has very little screen time, on the grand scheme of things, but his performance gives us the shivers and tugs at the heart strings, as he searches for over 40 years to find his grand daughter, his torture can be felt in his voice, a rare thing for an actor to achieve.

The pacing as mentioned, is super slick, for Fincher, quite possibly his best, he continually bombards you with a multitude of visual and audio information as the plot heads like a skud missile towards an enemy base.

By this point there is alos no need to say that the visuals are beyond stunning and meticulous, bar the very infrequent CGI shot that lasts no longer that 2 seconds. This film has a whole lot to offer, its rich in story telling, its gorgeous, the music by Trent Reznor again is haunting and gorgeous, the acting is of an extremely high caliber and unlike what came before, it ends in such a way that it is satisfying as a single story, meaning if a sequel never gets made, it will not damage it.

There are a few nit picks, Daniel Craig for example seems to be the only one not sporting an accent, but were so engaged throughout we forget about it after 5 minutes. Also the film decides to wander into the second books territory as its end rather than stick firm on where the main focus of the story feels it should end.

It works however and what were left with is an excellent crime thriller, that should not be underestimated, even by die hard fans of the original.