Dragon Tattoo is excellent but not a Masterpiece like Swedish pehonomanan

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2012)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – CATCH IT (A-) The Novel and Swedish version" Män som hatar kvinnor/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" with Noomi Rapace is a worldwide phenomena. There is no doubt that this is one of the most complicated and complex novel hitting the shelves last decades. Presenting the novel with all its complexities to the big screen is challenging, the Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev did a fantastic job with the first novel into a feature movie. Now it was David Fincher's turn to adopt the novel for American audiences with Rooney Mara and transfer into something close to or surpass the original phenomena with Noomi Rapace. Now I defiantly can say that David Fincher has done a fantastic job with American "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" but I cannot say that it's better than the original. Original is a classic masterpiece and Noomi Rapace deadly portray of Lisbeth Slander will go down in the history. If you compare both movies there is some difference like the characterization of Lisbeth Slander and Mikael Blomkvist. In Swedish version Lisbeth is fierce and doesn't show her emotions to anyone. Though in American version Lisbeth is more emotional and in the end her chasing down to Mikael Blomkvist shows her romantic side which was missing both in books and Swedish version. Maybe it was more David's attempt for American audiences to except her. I don't think it was a bad think because it gives it a decent romantic angel which is never a bad thing. Other major difference is Swedish Mikael is looks older though American Mikael is the roughed hot man in his best age. No wonder American Lisbeth falls for him. Noomi Rapace is indeed the winner as Lisbeth but it doesn't mean Rooney Mara is in anyway less. She did a fantastic job as Lisbeth Salander, her Oscar nod and stardom is totally worth it. Rooney Mara has shown how an average looking girl can crush all the odds of success. Not for a second she looked like a starlet, she defiantly lived the character really well. Daniel Craig is really charismatic and pin perfect as Mikael Blomkvist. Robin Wright is alright. Joel Kinnaman has non speaking part. Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgard are great in it. Overall, David Fincher has directed an excellent movie in all aspects. The Girl with Dragon Tattoo has detailed and intriguing story and enticing performances to entertain us.