Dark as night Fincher remake of Swedish thriller

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2012)

I made the decision to come to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the film right after finishing the book and I'm glad I did, partly because in order to understand the way the film moves around, you really need to have read the book.
Firstly, there are the main characters. Daniel Craig is brilliant as Mikael Blomkvist, the disgraced financial journalist whose libellous actions find him out of popular favour and put him right in the arms (and money) of the Vanger family and Corporation. Here, he is tempted to indulge Henrik Vanger's obsession with finding out where lost family member Harriet is. His chief motivations are pressed flowers which come each year from who knows where or who and a sense of closure he desperately craves as an old man. In short Craig's journo has to turn detective to satisfy the old man's curiosity.
As Blomkvist leaves his magazine behind in the capable hands of his married lover Erika, he travels to the colder north of Sweden to the heart of the Vanger family in Hedestad. He deals with cold weather, a family of dysfunctional people, some with 'nazi' tendencies and, in the latter stages someone trying to kill him. No mean task this.
Playing parallel to Blomkvist's adventures is the story of Lisbeth Salander. Salander, played very ably by Rooney Mara, is a punk, goth, rather brilliant loner with her own values/opinions on sexuality. We first meet Salander as she emerges from her motorbike, wearing a distressed black leather jacket, spiky black hair, extreme make-up and facial piercings which scream 'leave me alone'. Salander is a woman who dresses her own way with little thought as to her perceived attractiveness and desperately wants Swedish society to leave her well alone to do her job and not be hassled by anyone. Of course, this is not the case. After one social welfare guardian suffers a stroke, Salander is taken into the 'care' of another who just sees a way to exploit and control the free spirit, abusing his power by coercing Salander in a series of horrifying sexual assaults, each more severe than the last. This makes for very hard watching, as Salander is bound to his bed and is raped, all because he believes she should be more 'sociable' and friendly. His comeuppance is just as brutal, but also deserved as Salander zaps him with a tazer then dishes out some of her own treatment.
Thus do the paths then cross. Blomkvist appeals to Frode, his employer's solicitor for help in researching details and Frode points him to Salander. In the most uncomfortable of meetings, Salander begins to help Blomkvist in his journey to find Harriet alive or dead. It is this journey that continues to take darker paths, as Blomkvist reveals whats at the heart of the Vanger family and it really isn't pretty. Salander also initiates a sexual relationship with Blomkvist and in the course of the film, finds solace and a sort of brief peace in his care. In return for that, she manages to save his life after he is assaulted at the hands of another Vanger family member.
Fincher makes this adaptation of the film something to look at and a challenge to follow. For women there is a strong female lead to watch in Salander, a woman who tries to live her life by her own rules (but doesn't always succeed) and Blomkvist whose own love life is a bit of a mess in the book has it rationalised slightly in the film by only managing 2 lovers. And there's the brilliant mostly British cast, who include Craig, Geraldine James, Christopher Plummer, Stephen Berkoff and Joely Richardson with grand turns from Robin Wright and Stellan Skaarsguard (who else),but its Craig and Rooney Mara who make this film with likable, believable characters, not merely parts which could have ended up as caricatures.