A good film from a difficult novel

Rating: Null/10 (22 May 2012)

This might not be Fincher's best film. "Fight Club" and "Se7en" are masterpieces, and masterpieces are rare. However, there are various reasons why I like this film.
Compared with the recent Swedish version, the story is tenser, the rhythm less slow, the characters better casted. Craig gives us a much more convincing interpretation of the role of Blomquist. Mara is as good as Rapace was. The sub-plot relating to the strictly journalistic aspect of the story has been given less accent, and that contributes to concentrating our attention on the main plot.
As for the rendering of the novel, all adult readers and movie-goers know better that great directors give their own gist to stories. Sometimes directors change radically stories which are good as novels, turning them into very good films. Think about what Ridley Scott did from Dick's "electric sheep"...
Mature audiences do not expect the director to transfer all the details of a book into a film. Maybe young kids are disappointed if they do not see all the characters and situations they have read in a book exactly turned into a film. This is why, for example, 2 films had to be made from the latest Harry Potter novel. Adults appreciate synthesis, immature audiences want analysis.
What I liked most is Fincher's unmistakable touch. Of course, if you don't like Se7en or Fight Club you will shudder at some scenes which are indeed violent. Violence, however, is necessary to the plot, and only a great director like Fincher can describe the depths of a perverse mind.