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First, let’s address the 500-pound gorilla in the room. He's sitting right over there, next to Arthur and Conan the Barbarian. No, we really didn’t need a Hollywood remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo given the Swedish trilogy that precedes it was only released last year. But it happened. And the fact remains that subtitled films only reach a small percentage of American moviegoers – stupid, I know – so many will be exposed to the exploits of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist for the first time when David Fincher’s film hits theaters later this month. So, as the heated debate rages on within film discussion circles, newcomers to the series - as well as lovers of Fincher’s artistic vision and technical sophistication - will find plenty to like in the story’s labyrinth of murder, corruption, family secrets and inner demons.
For the uninitiated, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo kicks off the Hollywood big screen adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium Trilogy, which have sold 65 million copies worldwide. First published back in 2005, shortly after Larsson’s own death, the first novel in the series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo introduced readers to financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and avenging computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.
Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillan stay very close to Larsson’s unflinching source material which examines the corporate, societal, and personal corrosion Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and Salander (Rooney Mara) uncover as they lower themselves deeper and deeper into an investigation of a 40-year-old murder in Sweden. Hired by one of the country’s wealthiest industrialists, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to get to the bottom of the long-ago disappearance of his beloved niece Harriet, Blomkvist begins his investigation on a remote island on the frozen Swedish coast.
Meanwhile, Salander, who is hired as Blomqvist’s research assistant, heads to the island to join the journalist in his search for Harriet’s killer. Together, the unlikely sleuths begin to eventually dig up a chain of homicides that snakes from the past into the present, all the while forging a fragile bond of trust even as they are dragged into the most savage currents of modern day crime.
Salander is an enigma, and in a way, the film’s pulsing heart. The leather-clad, computer-hacking punk prodigy whose abrasive countenance stands as a dire warning for people to stay away, is a heroine unlike any in the oft-explored world of crime thrillers. She is painted with many contrasting shades: heavily armored but vulnerable; volatile yet meek. Although subjected to sexual violence and abuse as a young girl, Salander never lets herself become a victim, instead having healed over the wounds with fibrous scar tissue that manifest in a steely, determined resolve. The victim of a brutal anal rape (quite graphically depicted in a scene that some viewers may find hard to watch), Salander sheds nary a tear, instead channeling her grief on a plot to exact revenge on her rapist, who was the man in charge of overseeing her inheritance.
Mara sinks herself into the role of the feminist heroine, challenging Noomi Rapace’s legacy as the ultimate extreme badass. Mara’s Salander is a bit more well-rounded as she hints at a tender vulnerability that Rapace never got to address in her version of Dragon Tattoo. Though the jagged edge of Salander’s persona is carried over, one wonders why Fincher chose to deemphasize the prominence of the titular tattoo that, in Niels Arden Oplev’s film, stretched from neck to thigh, but here rather insignificantly adorns the bearer’s upper back.
The large ensemble cast that also includes Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard, Joely Richardson and Goran Visnjic, all have significant moments in the film and occasionally each gets a moment to pop. As the missing person investigation deepens, it begins to seep its way deeper and deeper into the expansive Vanger family, of which every member is a worthy suspect.
Viewers hoping to enjoy a new twist or distinctive angle on the Swedish original may find themselves a wee bit disappointed as Fincher and Zaillan’s telling strays very little from Larsson’s intricate tome, as did Oplev’s version. But this is the Fincher and Mara show and each leaves a unique and indelible mark on this brilliant story. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) continues Fincher’s hot streak of tremendous films and will likely vault Mara’s popularity into the stratosphere. This is one of the rare instances of a bigger budget and Hollywood’s remake-happy finger actually getting it right.
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