The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Director: David Fincher
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellen Skarsgård and Christopher Plummer
Releasing in cinemas: 12 January 2012
Rated: MA 15+

Strangely it appears many Americans have an aversion to reading subtitles, so most popular European language films get limited release in USA. For better or worse, the answer is to remake them with an English speaking cast to appeal to a wider audience. Let the Right One In is a recent case in point, and now we have the US version of the successful Danish/Swedish thriller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. They've even done a version of The Killing, that superb Danish political thriller TV series.

Having read Stieg Larsson's book - a rattling good yarn - and so much enjoyed the original adaption, I set out with some trepidation to see the American remake. Actually the new Girl on the block turns out surprisingly well, following Larsson's crime drama accurately with few minor changes, and keeping the plotlines clear in the rather complicated story. Now with $80 million in the coffers, the snazzy title sequence alone might have accounted for a fair whack of the total Danish film’s budget. It’s spectacular, but doesn't add to the story.

Not to say that a good adaption of a novel makes a great film; in fact if the book is as popular as The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo audiences will be critical. The Millennium series of three best selling novels published after Swedish author Larsson’s death have become something of a phenomena. They’ve become the War and Peace of crime thrillers, nearly 600 pages each, with a unusual protagonist, Nordic sexual diversions, violence, political overtones and a good dollop of Agatha Christie.

Disgraced Millennium journalist Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by reclusive corporate head Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the disappearance of his favourite niece Harriet 40 years earlier. Henrik suspects someone in the Vanger family may have murdered her. The dysfunctional Vanger clan all live on a bleak remote island, and could do a cast call for Wuthering Heights.

Mikael gradually uncovers a series of grisly murders which may be linked to the disappearance. He’s given considerable aid by antisocial young punk computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), who takes up the case while dealing with her own problems of an abused childhood and predatory guardian. Improbable collaborators Mikael and Lisbeth are drawn into a web of evil, which includes closet Nazis and hidden torture chambers.

Much of the novel’s appeal is the extraordinary heroine of the tale, the pivotal character of Lisbeth Salander. She’s a weird Goth combination of Pippy Longstocking and Sherlock Holmes, wreaking brutal revenge on men who have wronged her. In the novel, Salander's a skinny 4' 6" punk, tattooed and pierced, and highly intelligent with computer hacking mastery and photographic memory. She’s strong on martial arts but lacking any social skills.

Noomi Rapace played Lisbeth in the Danish adaption. Getting close to the novel's description, she grasped the vibrant essence of the character's smoldering angst. She was unforgettable. Rooney Mara (The Social Network) has a hard act to follow, yet does a commendable job, indulging in more robust sex scenes with Mikael than the previous film. There's no attempt to water down the lurid moments.

Competent direction comes from the reliable David Fincher, the man behind many stylish thrillers, and still basking in glory after The Social Network. The screenplay is adapted from Larsson’s novel by Steven Zaillian. Intelligent use of cross-cutting is used to maintain pace in this long essay, with an eye to the earlier film in a few scenes.

The film boasts an impressive cast. Reprising the Michael Nyqvist, role Daniel Craig (Cowboys and Aliens) makes a fair fist of the nuggety investigative journalist. Veteran Christopher Plummer (The Last Station) is much in demand, and with aristocratic grace delivers such caustic lines as “My family, the most detestable collection you'd ever meet”.

Stellen Skarsgård (Melancholia) makes himself at home in the role of Martin Vangler, with the kind of underlying menace he does so well. Salander's odious guardian is played with a wicked relish by Yorick van Wageningen (The New World). In the music department Enya gets unexpected and ironic play time.

With that Hollywood gloss, high production values and strong casting, the new film certainly does justice to the famous novel. Yet oddly, the modestly budgeted Danish original remains my favourite, possibly because of its freshness as the first release of the story. I think Noomi Rapace is still the outstanding Lisbeth. 

John Bale