The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
A movie review by Dave Randal
December 31, 2011
Genre: Drama | Crime | Mystery
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, and Stellan Skarsgard
Director: David Fincher
Writers: Steven Zaillian(screenplay), Stieg Larsson(novel)
Release Date: December 20, 2011 (USA)
Plot: This English-language adaptation of the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), as he investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara).
Want to know more about this movie?: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo IMDb Page
I heard a lot of great things about this novel and once I saw the trailer for the American remake I couldn't wait to see it. I first heard about the book about a year ago and all I really knew about it was that it was about a punk-looking girl who was a hacker. That immediately peaked my interest because a movie about computer hacking can be pretty good if done right. Little did I know that it was less about computer hacking and more about a complicated mystery that the girl has to help solve.
I am not that familiar with Rooney Mara but after seeing her performance in this movie I can't wait to see what roles she does next. She without a doubt had the best performance out of anyone in the movie. She plays Lisabeth Salander who is a punk-looking disturbed and abused twenty-three year old loner. She is also a hacker and extremely smart with a photographic memory which helps her as a private investigator. The character is very complex but also very believable. It was pretty obvious from watching the movie that Rooney Mara must have spent a lot of time preparing for the role. The character of Lisabeth is great because she is a very shy and sometimes vulnerable character, but she balances that with being very strong due to having to survive on her own since she was a little girl.
The other lead is Mikael Blomkvist played by Daniel Craig. I haven't seen Daniel Craig in much besides the James Bond movies, but I like the subtle vibe he generates through his roles. He sort of reminds me of Liam Neeson. In this movie playing Mikael I don't think his character is as well crafted as the Lisabeth character, but overall Daniel Craig himself does a good job. Early on in the movie when they introduce his character they go right into how he is an investigative journalist for a magazine and got in trouble for going after a big company which was using shady practices. I was fine with introducing the character that way, but I found it a little hard at first trying to figure out exactly what he got in trouble for.
I feel that a lot of things about this movie really worked, but there were also a few things that didn't work. It isn't really anything particularly in the story, but more in how the movie was structured. For one I'm not quite sure why they felt the movie needed to be filmed and based in Sweden. I get it if they did it to be loyal to the original novel, but there isn't too much about the movie that really screams Swedish culture that sets it apart from American culture. I didn't even realize it was in Sweden until I saw some words on a building. I think if they had based it in the United States it wouldn't have hurt the story or the style of the film at all. I know not everyone feels like this, but sometimes I'll find it hard to follow dialogue in a movie if everyone has a foreign accent. Especially if the accent is one I'm not very familiar with such as Swedish.
The other problem I have with the movie is that I think it is a bit too long. I don't mind that it goes over the two hour mark or even the two hour and twenty minute mark, but two hours and forty minutes is stretching it a bit too much. I usually enjoy books that are made into movies but sometimes you can tell when a movie was based off a book and they are trying to fit all of the book into the movie. Everyone remembers the false endings in Lord of the Rings and even though I don't think this movie had any false endings I think it goes on a little further than it has to. There is a part near the end where they solve the mystery, but then it just keeps going. I think it would have worked better if they had just ended it after they solved the mystery. The loose storyline they tied up at the end could have easily been tied up much faster than the way they did it.
Overall the murder mystery of the story is very well done in the movie. It kind of reminded me of an episode of Criminal Minds or The Mentalist. The chemistry between Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig is pretty solid even though they aren't together for too much of the movie. I think that may have been intentional to show Mara's character of Lisabeth as a loner. If that was the intention then I am completely fine with it, but it would have been interesting to see some more scenes with them working together to solve the mystery. One other thing I really liked about the movie was the island. The island set piece in the movie looks very nice. It sort of reminded me of the set piece in Shutter Island even though it was a much smaller island.
I would love to give this movie a full Rock On! five star rating, but I really can't due to how the movie is structured. If it hadn't been so long and if they had tweaked it a bit here and there I think it would have come off much better. Saying that though I felt it was a very decent movie and I can't wait to see if they make two more sequels. I love the character of Lisabeth and I want to see her in another setting now that we are already introduced to her.
Dave's Rating-
Thumbs UpLearn the Rating System
Dave's Star Rating- ★★★★(4) out of ★★★★★(5)
No comments:
Post a Comment