Decent enough remake of a better Swedish film

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2012)

I think that, for the most part, this was a perfectly fine remake of the Swedish 2009 film, but that's exactly the problem. Why do something that's already been done better -- and not that long ago, to boot? Everyone was very good in their roles -- I think finding Rooney Mara for the lead was key, because if you don't have the right Lisbeth, the whole thing goes downhill fast. But it did seem kind of weird that they're all supposed to be in Sweden, yet everyone is speaking English. Again, a reason to see the original and leave it at that.
Another thing that bugged me was the ending -- please stop reading if you don't want a spoiler. When they showed Lisbeth going to Mikael's house with a gift for him, and she sees him emerging with his arm around Erika, Lisbeth is obviously upset and hurt. She throws the expensive jacket into the trash, and vrooms off on her motorbike. In the original film, we surmise that Lisbeth and Mikael's relationship wasn't really anything more than friends with benefits -- in fact, I don't remember them having sex more than once. Lisbeth seems like she'd have a L*O*N*G way to go before she could be intimate with a man in any meaningful way, so the whole last scene in the U.S. remake didn't really ring true to character. I left the theater wondering if the director did that to make her more likable to American audiences -- can we not handle the fact that Lisbeth is a very damaged young woman who isn't going to see Mikael as her knight in shining armor? At least they didn't have Lisbeth and Mikael ending up "together" as a couple -- that really would have been insulting. Gee . . . Erika or Lisbeth -- who would any guy in his right mind have gone for?