Review
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Director: David Fincher
Release Date: 26 December 2011
Is it really necessary to make an American version of a film - particularly one that keeps the action in Sweden and requires all but one of the cast to adopt a Scandinavian accent - less than two years after a critically acclaimed foreign language version was released?
The answer is: perhaps. David Fincher takes his story, not from the first film, but from Stieg Larsson's original novel, making this an acceptable adaptation rather than a remake - though admittedly it is doubtful two films would have been made in such quick succession had the first been in English. Yet this, more faithful to the source material, has been made with the slick style expected of the director of Fight Club. Gripping from the outset, with some James Bond-inspired opening credits and a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor, this is a hard-hitting, uncompromising whodunnit.
Daniel Craig, as disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist, is required to do little more than furrow his brow and glower quietly, which he does expertly. Supported by the likes of Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgard, he is frequently upstaged, not least of all by virtual unknown, Rooney Mara. As Lisbeth, she is a powerful combination of vulnerability and ruthlessness, like Lolita with a tazer and a tattoo gun. Her appearance in the film is akin to Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight Rises; the scenes in which she does not feature simply prove how powerful her performance is. Of the many reasons to watch Fincher's version of this intriguing story, the girl is just one of them.
Becky Bartlett
