FILM REVIEW: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

8 out of 10

An angel at Craig's table

When I first heard David Fincher was remaking the Swedish thriller based on the bestselling book Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I asked myself... "why?". The original was a very recent cult hit that spawned 2 successful sequels. From a commercial perspective you could see why studios might want to milk the cow, but Fincher is one of the modern-day auteurs of our time. I couldn't quite see his artistic reasoning.

After about 5 minutes, and in much shame, I finally caught up with the play. You don't need reason, when you have passion... and passion for this genre Fincher has plenty of. His body of work including The Game, Se7en, Fight Club & Zodiac indicates explicitly his fascination into the tragically dark entrails of humanity. He explores and exploits our vices with a directness to penetrate the soul. It is where he is in his element. With a story like this, how could he resist?

A comment I read about this film was that it was his version of the book, rather than a remake of the Swedish film. This was a fair point, and rang true upon watching as he fully exacts his own vision into the piece. The existence of the Swedish version however, did have a negative impact on this viewing experience for me. It is quite impossible to sit through it, without constantly comparing the two. Fine enough for some, but I found it an irritating distraction, casting judgement scene by scene, moment upon moment. I'm far too conflicted in my bias towards Fincher to make a call either way, but in that statement alone, lies a concession.

I have to say, it doesn't rate amongst his best. The man doesn't know how to make a bad film, and his catalogue is supreme, but with this I didn't quite feel it. Much of the blame has to do I think with the fact that I knew the story outcome, and had seen it unfold via the Swedish version previously. This really hijacked the film of a lot of its punch that would've otherwise been much more effective. The length at 150+ mins also wore on me slightly, and other small frustrations, like Daniel Craig's here-nor-there accent began to annoy me. The ending also seemed drawn out and rushed at the same time, (without getting into plot revealing details).

To counteract all this, it's still Fincher, and the good outweighs the bad by considerable weight. Rooney Mara is strong in her role, and the film is visually superb, heavily involved in its environments. For me it'll be interesting to see if he continues the series. Having not seen those particular films, the prospects for those for me, would be most appealing indeed.