A Tour de Force of an adaptation

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2011)

The Millennium Trilogy has been a publishing sensation, selling millions of books and has been adapted into film in its native Sweden. The original film adaptation was one of the most successful Swedish films ever and when Hollywood announced it was going to make their own adaptation there were cries of blasphemy the world over. Then they heard that David Fincher was directing and their opinions quickly changed.
Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a disgraced journalist after being sued for libel and his political magazine faces the brink of bankruptcy. He is financially wiped out and his rival the industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom (Ulf Friberg) is out of the kill. At his lowest apt an old industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) gives Blomkvist an offer he can't refuse, if he finds out what happened to his grand-niece Harriet (Moa Garpendal) who disappeared in 1966 he will pay him four times his yearly salary and more importantly the evidence to bring down Wennerstorm. Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) is a private investigator and hacker who was asked to find out everything she can about Blomkvist. She is also declared mentally incompetent and her new guardian, Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen) is a sadist rapist. Both Blomkvist and Salander end up working together when it turns out the disappearance of Harriet has lead to a even bigger mystery.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a really entertaining page-turner thriller and is the best written and developed of the whole series. The characters were better developed, particularly the villains and it was good stand alone film. The Swedish original was an excellent film and so is Fincher's version. Fincher makes an even more stylish film with his camera movements, the title sequence and even the editing, making a tense film (even to someone who has read the novel and seen the Swedish version). Fincher has such skill that he make people researching on a computer and in an archive tense and interesting. Fincher makes his version even dirtier and gritty, and seeing that original was a tough watch it. There is a deliberately grim and grimy look, having a grey filter to it and Fincher does not finch with scenes like what happened to Salander after her rape. We slowly see how the mystery is solved and despite its long running time it does not feel like any scene was wasted and fits in most of the book. Some elements like Blomkvist's daughter, Pernilla (Josefin Asplund) actually plays an important role in this version compared to the Swedish version.
The casting is great, particularly Rooney Mara as Salander. Lisbeth Salander was one of the most covered roles in Hollywood, with the likes of Emma Watson, Natalie Portman, Mia Wasikowska and Keira Knightley being linked to the role, so it was a massive surprise that Mara got the role. But is was excellent in the role, looking the part. Whilst Noomi Rapace was very good in the Swedish version, she looked a bit too old and her Mara was more like the novel description, short, thin and small breasted. Mara also gets the characteristics right, she avoids eye control, very intelligent, cold and distance. Whilst she is a very anti-social person, she is not quite as spiteful as she is in the books sometimes, only taking out brutal revenge when someone truly wrongs her. This the role that should make her a start.
The rest of the cast are also excellent. Whilst it was annoying Craig did not speak in a Swedish accent he was able to over come that because he is such a talented actor, his performance being very natural whether his interaction with his daughter or showing his anger or show or when he scared and being tortured. Craig and Robin Wright seems a more natural couple then Michael Nyqvist and Lena Endre were in the Swedish original and Erika Berger and the troubles of Millennium were actually addressed in this adaptation. Whilst most of that subplot is left in the background it still helps raise the levels of problems and guilt for Blomkvist. I found it weird that the only major Swedish actor in the film, Stellan Skarsgard spoke with an American accent, then what we would think is a Swedish accent. I think that Peter Andersson was a better Bjurman then van Wageningen was but van Wageningen still played him as creepy, sleazy man.
This version is not 100% perfect, there are some subplots that are skipped over, like Blomkvist's affair with Cecila, the investigation involving the other members of the Vanger family, Blomkvist going to prison, the death and mention of Salander's mother, that character was combined with Salander's guardian Palmgren (Bengt C.W. Carlsson). The ending was also changed, to give it more of a twist, I personally would have preferred the original ending, but oh well, the basic idea is still the same. But I think that some small thinks like saying that Wennerstrom tried to kill a pregnant woman being cut was a wise move because I think that was a bit much still he was already a man with his fingers in crime and trying to destroy Blomkvist and Millennium when it was down.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provide an excellent score and soundtrack to this film, from their version of the Immigrant Song to the intense beats throughout the film. They provide some great music.
Fincher's version is a very good adaptation and so is the Swedish version. I like to see them as two different interpretation of the same source then a try remake. No one would bat an eye to a new version of a Shakespeare play or a classic novel, so why should this be different.