Fincher Kicked My Cynical Ass

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2012)

Last night, I walked into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fostering a number of prejudices. I couldn't understand why David Fincher would direct a remake of a bestselling novel. I scoffed at the idea that Americans are afraid of subtitles. I sighed impatiently after realizing that the running time was two hours and forty minutes. I ended up enjoying the Hell out of it.
As the opening credits explode on screen, Fincher sets the tone for what is a brutally confident and visually aggressive thriller. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian says, "Nothing in the movie quite matches the terrific opening sequence," which pounds its way into your head through its use of a "nightmarish, amorphous vision in liquid monochrome." What transpires next is a rather even-handed introduction to a trilogy based on the characters of Stieg Larsson. Sure the movie has its flaws – like why does Daniel Craig keep his English accent, or the clichés and scenes that almost drag the film down a number of dull meanders – but it is the malevolent and at times perverse intensity that etches its way into your mind long after the film is over.
Rooney Mara is Lisbeth Salander, a vulnerable private investigator and hacker who becomes involved with Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a discredited journalist hired to uncover a murderer in a wealthy feuding family. The pair are brought closer together by the sinister secrets that begin to unravel after Lisbeth cracks a mysterious code.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo features a number of solid performances, from the conflicted Mara and cardigan-wearing Craig, to the array of memorable characters such as Lisbeth's vile guardian or Mikael's distant wife.
Also, following their Oscar-winning collaboration on The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are back with yet another menacing hard-edged score, as violent synthesizers rumble. The film opens with a soaring industrial cover of Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin (as heard in the popular trailer for the film), with Karen O's voice giving it a distorted exposure during the slick silver montage.
Even when it really slows down, the movie never drags, and at least you can get a good look at a sickly world inhabited by cyberpunks, twisted Germans, ferocious degenerates and Daniel Craig in spectacles. A very powerful first move by Fincher, who gives this remake some brutal purpose.