505th Review: Great plot, solid filming, but above all, an outstanding female role

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2012)

TGWTDT is a great remake of a very hard to beat Swedish film - and they do pull it off. Cannot recommend the Swedish original highly enough - simply stunning - and scary. But this is faithful to the spirit and place of the original and it is mesmerizing. It is in places an uncomfortable watch, but the tale of the journalist (Daniel Craig) who is hired to solve a family mystery and restore his reputation is spellbinding.
But more than that is the outstanding writing, characterization, and above all acting by Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, who is a wonderfully complex and well-drawn character than easily outshines Daniel Craig and Stellan Skarsgård with a knockout performance. Above all this is a female character, not some male ideal, she is vulnerable and broken, but also tough as nails and unbreakable, smart, frighteningly independent, yet searching to validate her choices, a mass of contradictions and dichotomies of the sort that actresses deserve but rarely get.
It may be a gift of a role, but what Rooney does with it is a gift for us - simply the best performance by an actress, in my opinion, this year, and the best since Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone.