The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2012)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is based upon the novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson and was previously made into a film in 2009 starring Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. This American version of the book (the other version I mentioned was Swedish), stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara and is directed by David Fincher. First off I would like to say that I have never read the book of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or seen the Swedish adaptation either. I know that a couple of years ago the book became immensely popular among avid readers and that two sequels were released with the books and shortly after with the three films done in Sweden and now we have the American version of the first book and film. So having never read the book or having seen the Swedish version, I am going into this film as a newcomer unfamiliar with all of it. When the film first started playing a cover version of Led Zeppelin's The Immigrant Song, to some poorly conceived opening credits, I really had no idea whether I would like this film, or not, and to be honest it did take me a little while to get into it and used to the style of the whole thing, but once I adjusted and got used to the characters and what was going on in the film, I found myself totally enthralled with it and absolutely loving it. The film will definitely not be for everyone because it is very dark and macabre and features some very graphic violence, which I am sure will turn some viewers off. That being said I found the film to be absolutely fascinating. I am not going to give away any of the plot, because many of you going to see it I am sure will have been familiar with either the book, or should I say books, or films. If you have never seen any of them like myself, you will be so captivated by what is going on, you will need no previous knowledge of the films, or books in which to enjoy it. I thought the acting here by the entire cast was absolutely fantastic. Each person did the best job they possibly could and in a film like this, that means taking many risks and even doing a lot of quite physical and demanding work and they all did a terrific job. If the Oscars gave an award for best overall cast in a movie, this should certainly be one of the nominees. The actors each had their own personality to the characters and further enhanced what made them intriguing, different, or even evil. I must also give huge credit to the novelist Stieg Larsson and screenwriter Steve Zaillian, because both have created characters here that are so multi dimensional and they have so many different sides to them that we are not only intrigued and fascinated by them, but we also want to learn even more about them and because of the strong characterization and development we feel for these characters whether it be pity, empathy, or downright fear. I also liked how the characters evolved as the film went on and they were not just the typecast characters that I thought they would be. The film is a mystery and there is so much going on in this film, but it all plays out so well that none of it is boring, or feels useless and the way they crafted and put everything together like this was absolutely brilliant. The musical score as well as the lighting, cinematography and direction further gave depth and feeling to the mood of the film and at types we would feel really fearful, or in a state of suspense, or other times shocked, or even intrigued by what we had just watched. This is a dark and macabre little movie and like I said, it would definitely not be for everyone, but I credit the filmmakers for going with it and not shying away from anything and just producing a sometimes hard to watch, but overall fascinating and mysterious masterpiece. Everything about this film is so masterfully constructed, I think as lot of major film buffs would find it hard not to love, or find a lot to like about this film. The film's director David Fincher directed 2010's The Social Network, which I considered to be the absolute best film of that year and here again he impressed me very much and made what I consider to be the best film of 2011. This guy is definitely going places and has the talent and resume to prove it. This is a hands down masterpiece.