A memorable girl

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2011)

"What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw." Swedish proverb
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is indeed a girl's movie, for it is about misogyny and the revenge women can sometimes get. In between is a standard thriller, albeit classy and European, so there's much more investigation than shooting. It's an American product, based on the Swedish film of the same name in 2009, itself based on the Stieg Larsson novels about a wildly eccentric 23 year old woman, Lisbeth (Rooney Mara), who has the investigative skills of Sherlock Holmes and the prowess of La Femme Nikita.
Daniel Craig plays a disgraced journalist, Mikael, engaged by a powerful family to answer one of its darkest secrets and at the same time get revenge on his courtroom antagonist, who caused his disgrace. He enjoins Lisbeth to help the investigation.
With women the victims in both parts of the story, the investigations have parallel themes of revenge and feminism. Lisbeth is one of the most complicated women ever on screen. Alternately kinky and remote, tough and vulnerable, she also is ultra modern navigating both technology and sex.
This iteration has all the plot points of the original and an enhancement of the relationship between journalist and assistant. In the end all is tied up, with an anticlimax that could have been left behind although it is interesting to see how the criminals receive their just rewards.
Overall the film is stylish and decidedly brutal (a rape scene is shocking but still watchable) with a cerebral overlay complementing the base acts that include incest and Nazis just in case rape were not enough for the audiences on both sides of the pond. That the American version could so soon after the Swedish compel viewers and stand on its own is a tribute to director David Fincher and novelist Larsson.
"Evil shall with evil be expelled." Swedish proverb