Rooney Mara carries the whole film, and wow does she carry it well.

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2011)

Everyone had their pick of who they wanted to play the Lisbeth Salander in the American remake if The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, there were slot of really big names and a lot of great actresses who came very close to bagging the role, but Mr Fincher did the right thing and chose a little known actress who had the acting chops to make this difficult role something memorable, it must be said that Rooney Mara is phenomenal in this movie, I would go so far as to say that she out does Noomi Rapace, which is saying slot because she was also amazing in the original.
Remakes of foreign films are either hit or miss, sometimes they can change it too much and it is just lame, or sometimes they can stick to closely to the original and it seems kinda pointless, this remake however is pretty much perfect in sticking to the story but bringing it's own little bits and pieces to it that make it different, it's pretty much the exact same storyline and all important scenes are almost identical, it's just the right amount of same and different. Daniel Craig is rather good as Mikael Blomkvist, but he really us no match for scene stealer Mara.
Sweden is shown in all it's freezing cold glory and it's presented in an equally inviting and non inviting way, im glad that Fincher decided to keep it set in Sweden and not transfer it to America, it wouldn't have the same vibe if it were any different. Another awesome thing about this film is the epic opening credits, your eyes and ears are attacked by dripping tattoo ink and Miss Karen O's screeching voice, it's truly epic and sets you up for the film you are about to watch.
Fans of the original and fans of Fincher will be impressed, it is a worthy remake of an already excellent film but it also stands as a film on it's own. And long live Rooney Mara, she is the pure driving force and Im praying they remake all 3 films as her as that character is acting gold, so tough, so perfectly cast.
Check it out.