Saturday 14 September 2013

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

It's been a while since I wrote horror, read horror or even really watched horror therefore coming here has been pretty left out. Personal life and crap in the way. Anyway, I decided its time for a come back. But as horror is living on the back burner at the moment I've decided to review a none horror for now. However, the love of violence is still here.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Directed by - David Fincher
Starring - Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgard.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is probably one of this decades most read thrillers. While every other woman was captivated by the Shades of Grey novels I was unable to put the first Steig Larsson's fantastic Millennium Trilogy down. The books have sold billions of copies all over the world and Sadly Larsson passed away before he could see the storm his perfectly written trilogy had created or the franchise it had become. David Fincher's version is not a remake of the Swedish adaptation but a stand alone adaptation of the book.

The story centres around Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist and editor of Millennium magazine. After his career and credibility is all but destroyed by a libel scandal he is hired by the ageing Henrick Vanger to investigate the disappearance and possibly murder of his great niece during the 60's and the prime suspects are member of her own family. Reluctantly Blomkvist agrees and during his investigation he comes across the talented but socially awkward hacker and private investigator, Lisbeth Salander. Together they discover that there is a far more sinister reason for the girls disappearance than anyone ever imagined.

Clearly Fincher knows the book well and adapted is near on perfectly. While the Swedish version from 2 years earlier is a fantastic film, Fincher as usual, has put his all into keeping his adaptation as close to the original material as is possible. I am a fan of Finchers work and rarely can I pick faults. The casting is perfect. At first I thought Daniel Craig would be far too high profile as Bond to ever be able to play Blomkvist convincingly without me waiting for him to shoot someone with a pen but Craig really pulls it off. Rooney Mara is excellent as the cold, emotionless Salander. However, I do still prefer Noomi Rapace in the role. In my opinion, Rapace is Salander so Mara had big shoes to fill and while she filled them well, Rapace was more captivating.

Cinematography wise, its basic for Fincher but set against a beautiful Swedish backdrop its easy to appreciate its simplicity. The opening is a work of art though and something akin to a Nine Inch Nails video and quite usual for Fincher. His openings are always stunning on their own.

Overall I do still prefer the Swedish adaptation but Fincher as always has impressed me. I really enjoyed it and felt it stayed true to the almost perfect material it was working from. I do hope he continues the trilogy at some point. It would be a shame not to.