Given the ubiquity of Stieg Larsson’s massive megahit bestseller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo—there was a while there where it seemed every third person on public transit, on the beach, or walking down the street had their nose buried in it—the fact that there would be a motion picture adaptation was a no-brainer. Of course, that adaptation already came out, a taut and well-made thriller produced in Sweden in 2009 that many have quite validly pointed out didn’t need a remake.
But knee-jerk grousing about Hollywood’s quick do-over is about as pointless as chastising your fellow transit rider for not reading the book in the original Swedish. Given its inevitability, is there another director better suited to Larsson’s cold, gloomy, ominously-toned thriller than David Fincher?
The story, should you have managed to avoid pop cultural indoctrination up to now, has two roads that eventually merge. One concerns Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel Craig), publisher of a leftist magazine who gets in trouble when he prints an article sharply critical of a billionaire industrialist who goes after him for libel. After losing the case, he takes on a private investigation for a wealthy retired CEO, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), into the disappearance 40 years prior of Vanger’s neice.
The other concerns the titular girl, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a cyberpunkish computer hacker and ward of the state with a troubled past and a particular talent for background investigations. After spending most of the film’s first half on these separate paths, Lisbeth joins up with Mikael’s investigation into the cold case.
What Fincher brings to the table is a particular talent for atmospheric, highly stylized mystery. Just as he did in his underrated and engrossing Zodiac, he creates a mood of overwhelmingly chilly dread and is relentless in its application. The separate stories allow for frequent crosscutting between the bleak, frozen island where Mikael is conducting his investigation, and the inky black urban landscape where Lisbeth is attempting to deal with a monstrous new state-appointe d guardian. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for their work on Fincher’s The Social Network, are similarly well-suited to this material, and create a soundscape of eerie musical cues the deepens the unsettling tone.
Despite this being a “Hollywood” remake, Fincher stays true to the word he gave before production, and doesn’t shy away from the book’s raw sexual violence. There are three rape scenes in the first half of the film, and Fincher’s camera never leaves the room. Larsson’s story uses these plot points to underline Lisbeth’s experience with, and commitment to avenging, violence against women; given the cheers in the crowd during her first scene of vengeance, Fincher effectively incited the audience to the same degree of disgust.
Craig is excellent as Mikael, a man with a keenly inquisitive mind and just a touch of humanizing absent-minded-professor bumbling. Craig’s Mikael feels slightly more substantial here than in the Swedish adaptation, but that doesn’t take away from the power of Lisbeth’s character. If there was one gripe above all others when the remake was announced, it was that no one could possibly supplant Noomi Rapace’s jaw-dropping turn in the Swedish film. Rooney Mara’s take on Lisbeth might not quite approach the raw power of Rapace, but she is nothing if not formidable in the role.
What Fincher can’t really fix is the fact that the source material is, structurally a mess. This Dragon Tattoo‘s deficiencies mirror its predecessor’s: a convoluted plot based around a family tree with many branches, a climactic showdown that seemingly comes out of nowhere, and which is then followed by at least another half hour of plot developments. Given that, it’s a testament to Fincher’s expert pacing that even with a running time of over two and a half hours, he’s able to keep things moving. The script from Steve Zaillian also gives the story an ending closer to Larsson’s (Neils Arden Oplev, who directed the home-country version, tweaked some of the final scenes fairly significantly), and in so doing does slightly undermines Lisbeth’s characterization.
Still, those are nitpicky complaints about a film that largely does its job with brutal and anxious efficiency. The necessity for another version of this film is certainly still open for debate, but this Dragon Tattoo makes a strong case for the notion that even if it wasn’t needed, it’s certainly appreciated.
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Directed by David Fincher
Written by Steve Zaillian, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson
Starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård
Running time: 158 minutes
Rated Rated R for brutal violent content including rape and torture, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, and language.
Opens today at theaters across the area.
