When I heard that Stieg
Larsson’s internationally best selling
novel The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo was being made into a movie,
I was thrilled.
The book was a terribly attractive
read that kept me up well
past 3 a.m. on multiple occasions,
and I hoped that the movie makers
would channel the tension and
shock value from the book into
an enthralling, appalling viewing
experience that almost hurt to
watch.
Well, it did hurt to watch. Some
of that hurt came from the shock
of being visually exposed to the
alarming and sometimes brutal
acts of sex and violence that are
merely described in the book,
which director David Fincher is
anything but bashful in depicting.
These scenes are as dark and
unsettling as anything from Fight
Club or Se7en, so if you don’t have
the stomach for such things, avoid
Dragon Tattoo. This isn’t a Nancy
Drew kind of mystery.
Rather, it’s a Lisbeth Salander
kind of mystery, and Rooney
Mara’s performance as the shortfused,
edgy heroine is both intimidating
and exciting.
She portrays all of Salander’s
ups and downs in the film convincingly—
from nearly broken
to breaking bones, standoffish to
tender, hopeful to heartbroken—
capturing the soul of one of the
most dynamic, dangerous characters
in recent popular literature.
He’s not doing ridiculous
stunts like James Bond, but Daniel
Craig is also fun to watch in his
role as Mikael Blomkvist, the investigative
journalist who is attempting
to solve a forty-yearold
murder mystery in the hopes
that the man who hired him will
help him to bring down a corrupt
businessman.
Craig doesn’t steal any scenes
like Mara does, but it’s still exciting
to watch him search out the
bad guy and figure out how to
deal with the difficult people he is
forced to work with.
Trent Reznor brings as much
intensity to the film as Mara does
with his chilling, introspective film
score.
The music creeps at the edges
of everything happening in the
film, as if you can hear the anxiety,
frustration and determination
of the characters as they try to figure
out who to trust and who to
deceive.
When things get brutal it
builds into cold ferocity, making
the graphic scenes even more
unsettling.
Some parts of the film were
too confusing, however. Those
who have read the book will realize
that some parts of the plot
were drastically shortened in the
film.
Though this abbreviation is
practical, as the film is already two
and a half hours long, the shortened
parts feel rushed and lead
to an anticlimax that stifles earlier
thrills.
Those who haven’t read the
book might end up totally confused,
because I even had difficulty
following some parts of the
plot.
Though there are a few weak
scenes, overall The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo was a good movie.
It didn’t do the book justice in
some respects, but book-to-movie
adaptations rarely do.
If you can tolerate the graphic
scenes and want to see how the
worldwide phenomenon translates
onto the screen, this is one guilty
pleasure worth experiencing.