The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo (review)

By Dr. Notorious

Reviewer Note: It seems like it has taken me days to re-write this and not fawn gushing love all over those responsible here. As a reviewer I want to stay fair and even. But there are just some cases, like this one, where I am truly a geeky film boy dork talking about a particular movie. Like in this case. I did my best to keep it even and apologize if you feel otherwise.

Here we go:

Since it’s original publishing date back in 2005, Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy,” has gone on to make iconic anti-heroes out of it’s primary characters, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
Absolutely nobody paying attention should really have to have the plot or characters here explained to them. “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” was easily the most popular of the three books released. It’s said to have sold close to 35 million copies worldwide.

Precursor? I am not going to waste your time here, given the crowd that I am writing to, with a long synopsis and plot overview. It feels like a waste of type. That being said, I am going to get right to the issue at hand here.

Henrik Vagner (Christopher Plummer) hires recently disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to investigate the unsolved disappearance of his niece forty years ago. Lisbeth Salander is the cyber punk investigator and hacker, originally assigned to investigate Blomkvist, who ends up teaming with Blomkvist to dig into the family and uncover the truth about what really happened to Henrik’s niece, Harriet Vagner. All hell breaks loose in the process and we’re taken on a seriously dark and sinister ride as a result.

Worst synopsis ever?

Does it really matter all that much?

I am going to favor the fans here and attack this from the most obvious place the legions of readers are going to go. That being said, the biggest question you’re most likely asking yourself right now is if this movie was at all necessary? Why should we view this as anything other than one more pathetic cash grab with a popular director at the helm? The Swedish version, courtesy of director Niels Arden Oplev, was a pretty impressive adaptation already in wide circulation. It certainly made stars of both Noomi Rapace (currently co-starring in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows with Ridley Scott’s not-an-alien prequel, “Prometheus,” coming at you next summer.) and Michael Nyvkvist. (currently playing the thanklessly underdeveloped villain in M:I 4). Were by no means talking about a crappy sub par adoption that left anyone who saw it wanting more. Who the heck remakes a movie that is not even two years old and has a 7.7 IMBD rating? (Matt Reeves, you are the exception.) How the hell do you bring a new spin to anything this well known?

I have to give a lot of credit to David Fincher for even attempting to go here.

It is bad enough when you’re fighting against one audience perception. Overcoming that is a bitch unto itself. He went into this project with multiple different mediums to live up to and never flinched. That could not have been an easy task for the most skilled auteur.

After this, I am convinced Fincher could likely take a boring Orange Juice commercial and turn it into a visual unsettling masterpiece full of twists and turns you never saw coming. There is simply no other currently working director that feels so seemingly at peace on the dark side of human nature. Or human nature at all for that matter. And in that aspect, there is no better outlet for his particular brand of filmmaking than this material. You could feel Fincher’s mark on this thing for the jarring open credits sequence cut to Trent Reznor’s creepy cover of “Immigrant Song.” This is a seriously nerve wracking and disturbing vision that is in no way an unworthy adaptation of either the novel or previous film.

I might complain that it stays a bit to close to the source material. Or that he might rely to heavily on Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s bleak and creepy score. But all in that works to the films advantage more than anything in both cases. There is a whole crap load of information given to us here very quickly and almost stripped down to its essentials. Yet were never left questioning motives or hunting for hidden meaning at all. Which is usually the reason an adaptation of this type is unrecognizable. The exact opposite is the case here and I have to give Steven Zaillian a whole lot of the additional credit here. He clearly got in the s*** and let the dirt fly here. How the heck both managed to give equal measure to every character and not loose the primary focus of his central two characters is beyond me. Nor does the mystery at the center of this tale ever become remotely distorted or undeveloped. This may actually be the best spent 2 2/3 hours of film time in recent memory. Nothing is out of place or unnecessary. There is simply not a single scene that seems like it should have been exercised from the whole. That alone is an amazing accomplishment given the subject matter. And he doesn’t stop there.

While I will get to Daniel Craig, I first want to laugh over the stupidity of everyone that questioned Fincher’s motives for fighting for (and still getting grief for whatever dumb*** reason.) the casting of little known, and overall untested, Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. This is easily one of the most impressive full on transformations given by an actress in years. And I am not just talking about the obvious dramatic shift to her overall appearance. I cannot say that her “getup” itself was not a constantly engaging process. (Both in and frequently out of clothing as it was).

That however would be lessoning what Mara has achieved here. She quite literally covers the gambit of vulnerability and then quickly shifts to mildly sociopath like anger like it was a natural reaction. She absolutely takes utter detachment to new levels here and then, just as quickly, snaps and explodes beautiful rage across the screen in unparalleled fashion for such a newcomer. This is an absolutely breakout performance if there ever was one. Fearless doesn’t even begin to describe what were talking about here. She quite honestly had me for the go and never let up. While I found her performance engaging and fully developed, I cannot say the same about Noomi Rapace who I had to grown into the idea of. This is just flat out impressive and dare I even say possibly Oscar worthy?

Scarlett Johanssen? So far out of her league here were not even talking about the same game. Talk about disaster avoided.

Which is not to subject Craig to any kind of firing squad in the process of this “Mara” love fest.

He honestly makes an absolutely great Mikael Blomkvist. The biggest problem I have personally is detaching him from his own badass image. Yes, we all see him as “James Bond” before anything else. Which is actually complete rubbish in respect. Fincher said in a recent interview that Blomkvist should not be aware of his attractiveness while maintaining a Robert Mitchum like presence.

Ultimately the reason he cast Craig, and built the film around him, is that Craig, above all other A-List stars of recent times, is an actor first. I can get behind that completely here. And getting me out of that Bond mindset is a great thing. It did not happen in the least viewing the terminal dry, “Cowboys And Aliens.” Craig is almost the anti-Bond here. Seriously think about it: Blomkvist gets shot at and runs away. Blomkvist ends up in the killers trap and has to be rescued by the girl. Craig plays the idealist in the character to the hilt while also expressing enough vulnerability that we never lose sight of the fact that this is just a regular guy stuck in an extraordinarily twisted situation. He makes choices in that not many other actors I can think of would have the balls to attempt while never betraying the humanity of the character once. Mind you, if you can’t get past the “Bond” problem your most likely going to miss the show on display.

If anything this 100% re-iterates the artist in front of the star here as he often confesses is his biggest issue with fame.

I think the biggest problem here for no fans is going to be all the unanswered questions.

Sure, this is murder mystery at gazing glance, but more than that it is a twisted love story about two people that are totally wrong for each other, have serious trust issues, yet find common ground and connect in each other anyway. Sure, it takes awhile to get there. And it really is the ultimately anti-love story in it’s own right. None of which changes the fact that everything here is about getting this two together. Which almost painfully seems to take even longer to happen here than it did in the Swedish Version. There is a reason these characters are so beloved and iconic. And that has nothing to do with any of the supporting players. It’s getting to dip into the minds of the fractured central characters and sticking around for a while.

When that happens it is pure magic and something damn near cinematically profound.

Everything that happens in-between is merely a catalyst for that and the reason why these two are both so perfect and yet so estranged from one another emotionally. Every player plays his part quiet well in this ballet of a viscerally frozen affair. Yet I am still always coming back to the primary characters none-the-less. Yes, the Vanger family and it’s dreadful mis-dealings and bad behavior are here and very well accounted for. I have nothing but praise for what Christopher Plummer, Joely Richardson, Stellan Skarsgard (Who flat out radiates evil ooze to perfection), and Steven Berkoff.

Nor can I ignore the efforts of Robin Wright or anyone else that aren’t springing to mind right now. I do not mean to lessen their contributions to this, as it really would be a much flatter without any of them. I can also suggest that each plays their part beyond expectation. The humanity in Plummer’s portrayal of Henrik was damn right moving at times. Yet, I can really give a crap on whole. They are all just a means to an end.

Depending on how you like your coffee (Dark or with cream?) this is likely the most efficient and well-crafted movie of the year. It is jet black and still manages to let the sunlight shine through at the best possible times. I love that about this movie. It never once feels disingenuous despite many places it could have gone dreadfully off track. This is expertly crafted and deserved of multiple glances.

If only for staying true to the source and still managing to somehow stay original unto itself in the process. Exactly how many adaptations of anything can we say that about?

I can only hope and pray Fincher sticks around for the duration at this point. I can’t imagine anyone else that could fill the characters in so perfectly.

It may be my only real Christmas wish at this point.

Dr. Notorious is the questionably sane soul behind soon to be re-launching (Jan. 1st)  sister blog C.G. (aka Cinematic Glamorama).