Top-Notch Thriller!!!

Rating: 10/10 (5 January 2012)

If you saw both versions of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" side by side, you could spot the differences between the Swedish original and the American remake. Nevertheless, if you've seen one, the revelations in the other won't surprise you. Mind you, "Fight Club" director David Fincher brings his obsession with serial killers with him to this first-rate adaptation of Stieg Larsson's international bestseller. Fincher scored his first major cinematic success with the crime thriller "Se7en" (1995) about a serial killer, and he explored the theme again in "Zodiac" (2007) a film about the real-life slayings in San Francisco. Considering that the lurid subject matter of Larsson's novel concerns a man who murders women, the pairing of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and Fincher seems ideal. Oscar winning "Schindler's List" scenarist Steven Zaillian brings his formidable skills to bear as the sole scribe. Indeed, little is amiss in the Fincher & Zaillian retread, except cat lovers probably won't appreciate the butchered feline that winds up on our hero's door step. The cat was conspicuous by its absence in the Swedish version. Perhaps the biggest difference between the films is the casting of Lisbeth Salander. Noomi Rapace registered brilliantly as the eponymous heroine in the original, but newcomer Rooney Mara is no slouch. Mara wears insanity as persuasively as her black, boot-polish Goth make-up and her punk rock coiffures. Any preference you have may boil down to your choice between either Ms. Rapace or Ms. Mara. Each deliver unforgettable performances, and the Lisbeth Salander character is going to be remembered as one of the strongest images of women in film since the titular character in the French action yarn "La Femme Nikita."
Aging Swedish business magnate Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer of "The Sound of Music") fears that he has few years left. The mysterious disappearance of his niece Harriet is the one thing which has haunted him for 40 years. She vanished without a trace one day during a family reunion. Neither the authorities nor Henrik were ever able to find her. To add insult to injury, Henrik has received a framed flower picture annually on each birthday. Harriet gave him the first flower, but lately Henrik suspects that all subsequent flowers since she disappeared have been sent by Harriet's killer. Henrik feels like he is being ridiculed and he has suffered from this torment long enough. He hires an illustrious Swedish political journalist who writes for the magazine "Millennium." A reluctant Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig of "Casino Royale") accepts Vanger's job offer since he has just lost a highly publicized libel suit against a notorious Swedish billionaire investment banker, Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg of "Exit"), and the court settlement has wiped out his savings.
Henrik commissions Blomkvist to write his memoirs in part because he abhors the corrupt Wennerström. Moreover, he possesses files on Wennerström which will damage the billionaire's reputation and he promises to give them to Blomkvist after he completes his assignment. What Blomkvist doesn't know is that Henrik's attorney, Dirch Frode (Steven Berkoff of "Octopussy"), has employed Milton Security to conduct a background check on Blomkvist. The individual who does the background check is a 23-year old girl, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara of "Youth in Revolt"), and she leaves no stone unturned. Once Henrik hires Blomkvist, he describes his family as rather repugnant. Two of his brothers joined the Nazi Party during World War II. Some don't talk to each other even though they live in houses on an island linked to the mainland by a single bridge. Furthermore, Henrik suspects one of them may have murdered poor Harriet. Henrik installs Blomkvist in a nearby cottage and provides him with every shred of evidence that the police used in their investigation.
Later, things go awry when Henrik suffers a heart attack, and everybody but Frode expects him to die. At the hospital, some of Henrik's relatives demand Blomkvist be dismissed, but Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgård of "Thor") convinces the family to allow Blomkvist to complete Henrik's chronicle. Meantime, Lisbeth encounters her own woes when her guardian suffers a stroke, and the state replaces him. Lisbeth, it seems, has a life filled with tragedy. We learn later she burned her abusive father over eighty per cent of his body because he beat her mother without mercy. Since her assault on her father, Lisbeth has been in trouble and is now a ward of the state. The state transfers Lisbeth over to Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen of "Soul Assassin") who displays a hostile attitude to Lisbeth. They get off on the wrong foot, but Lisbeth manages to bring him around to her way of thinking.
Eventually, Blomkvist finds the mystery so overwhelming that he asks Frode for an assistant and Frode recommends Lisbeth. Together, they struggle to not only find clues but also to interpret those clues correctly. If anything differentiates the two films, the casting disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist does. Stockholm born actor Michael Nyqvist appears more believable in the original, but English born actor Daniel Craig holds his own in the remake. Actually, were it not for radical, off-beat character of Lisbeth, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" would amount to little more than a complex European whodunit set in a scenic, snow-swept wonderland. In fact, it is Lisbeth who gives the film its lurid but gripping quality. She assumes a role of greater significance in the Swedish sequels and probably will in the American sequels. She emerges as a female Rambo with a no-nonsense attitude. If she were a cat, she would claw more often than purr.
Although "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" clocks in at a lengthy 158 minutes, director David Fincher doesn't squander a second. He knows the right moment to cut away from one scene to another to heighten suspense. Furthermore, despite the graphic crime scene photos and the misogyny, Fincher is careful enough to never rub our noses in it.