The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - Wow! Now I Kind of Want to Read the Book!

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2012)

Director David Fincher reunites with his highly-accomplished team from his previous movie, "The Social Network", and has made a thriller film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's Swedish novel series. The dazzling opening credits of this film are just impressive, as if the movie itself. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" stars Daniel Craig as a newspaper journalist, asked to recover a 40-year-old mystery about the disappearance and possible murder of a young girl. He then teams up with Rooney Mara, in a deserved Oscar-nominated performance as the title role, as an expert researcher and computer hacker that has been involved in the investigation, after recently making a background check on Daniel Craig's character. Don't be fooled by the trailer, when thinking it's a live action thriller. But it's actually a realistic, murder investigation story. I've been a huge fan of director David Fincher, when seeing two of his movies, "Fight Club" and "The Social Network". Now, he scored a triple home-run with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". He carefully executes this movie perfectly, with plenty of time and precision, that not even a long conclusion can ruin. The cast is just plain superb. Daniel Craig is always perfect playing the investigative journalist, Christopher Plummer plays the uncle of the missing suspect, Robin Wright as Craig's work partner and long-time lover, and Stellan Skarsgard as the brother of the missing suspect. But the scene-stealing performance belongs to Rooney Mara. She steals every scene in the movie, and she owns the entire movie. She perfectly captures the innocence of her character, and shows the right vision of darkness into her role. What a "shining star" performance by such a young actress! I was immediately blown away by the haunting music score of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, that perfectly tells the story. The visionary film editing by Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter, is delivered with such speed and timing, that it deserved this year's Academy Award win for Best Film Editing. The writing is true and believable, the directing is visionary, and the acting is just plain superb. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is perfect for audiences who either read the books, or haven't read the books. This is a slow, strong, violent, dark, thrilling, and exhilarating roller coaster ride. This is also one of the best movies of 2011. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", in my review, "an exhilarating and thought-provoking motion picture".