David Fincher's take on the first part of the Millennium Trilogy.

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2012)

Looking at the critical praise in 2005 of Robert Rodriguez ultra-violent comic Film-Noir Sin City,seemed to suggest a good possibility that violent Film-Noir would be making an impact in Hollywood.Sadly,with Rodriguez unsure over the follow-up,and Sin City's own creator,Frank "Robocop 3" Miller showing everyone why he should be kept 100 yards away from a movie camera with his 2008 Noir-stylised adaption bomb of Will Einer's The Spirit,any sign of a mainstream Noir movement in Hollywood seemed to die almost as soon as it had started.Luckally,something very exciting was bubbling away in a part of Europe called Scandinavia.Perhaps, not since the Italian Giallo genre had caved in has a Noir influence movement become so connected with one location in Europe,with the Nordic Noir movement delivering such smash hits as Henning Mankell's Wallander novels/adaptation's and the transatlantic surprise hit TV series The Killing.And whist these and many others have made a huge impact on Noirdic Noir,there has always been one trilogy of novels at the very top of the Nordic list:the Millennium Trilogy by investigating journalist Stieg Larsson (1954-2004),and with having been a huge fan Niels Arden Oplev's wonderful 2009 take on the first part of the trilogy,I became extremely excited,when earlier this year it was announced that David Fincher was going to deliver a 90 million dollar take on this Noir epic.
The Plot:
After losing a court case over articles printed in Millennium magazine about businessmen Hans- Erik Wennerstom, investigative journalist,and Millennium editor Mikael Bloomkvist attempts to go underground.How ever,during the Christmas period Mikael gets a phone call,from one of Sweden's wealthiest men: Henrik Vanger, asking him to come visit him for a paternally high-paying job.When Bloomkvist arrives at the "Vanger Island",he is told to pretend to be writing a memoir on Henrik .After being given the alibi, Henrik tells Mikael that the real reason he is offering to pay him very well (and to also pay any of the magazines future legal costs)is that, for the last 40 years he has spent every moment of his life trying to find out who murdered his great-niece Harriet Vanger,who "disappeared" one evening shortly before the Vanger family (whoses history has some extremely strong ties to the Nazi party) sat down for dinner.And with his health starting to fade,Henrik feels that the only option he has left is to ask Bloomkvist to look at the case.Eventally accepting the offer,Bloomkvist is left shocked,when he is told by Henrik,that to make sure he was "clean" a Goth Cyber Punk computer hacker called Lisbeth Salander had been given the job of hacking into Mikaels computer,to look into his activates.Attempting to get to grips with what he has gotten himself into,Mikael begins to read Harriet's diary,where he discovers on the very last page a row with 10 different initials.Suspecting that he is stumbling onto something that only Harriet had found before,Bloomkvist forces Henrik to give him the details of Salander's location.
Operning her front door,Lisbeth is shocked to see Bloomkvist come face to face with her.Convining Salander that he is not here to attack her, (although she does still secretly get hold of a taser,due to recently having had to battle her "guardian" after he had brutally raped her)Mikael begins to explain to Salander,that since he has been shown the undercover work that she did on him,he strongly feels that she will be able to spot the smallest detail in this 40 year old case.And although Salander is at first uneasy around him, they both soon discover that what seems to be a missing person case,is in fact something much more disturbing...
View on the film:
With being a fan of the original 2009 Swedish adaption,the other main ingredient that got me very excited about this film was the one of my all time top three favourite musicians (Trent "Nine Inch Nails" Reznor) was re-teaming with his wife Mariqueen Maandig and fellow How To Destroy Angels band member Atticus Ross to deliver the score for this movie.Whilst the score surprisingly stays away from the aggression that Reznor displays under the Nine Inch Nails name,all three musicians create an absolutely perfect backdrop for the film,with the soundtracks brilliant mix of snow-like Ambiant electronics and a more abrasive Post-Rock sounds perfectly expresses the films mood of fragile pain and burning-red anger. One of the most interesting aspects about both versions of Larsson's Nordic Noir is that the two different team of screenwriters both demonstrate that the films main plot line of the missing girl is almost impossible not to get hooked into.For his gripping take on the events,American Gangster screenwriter Steven Zaillian cleverly builds up the films mystery and characters at a gradually pace,which gives the movie a strong HBO-style edge,thanks to Zaillian having the down-beat grim side of the main characters lives slowly become laced with the mystery elements of the film.Despite being the only performer in the film who stays away from adopting a Swedish accent,Daniel Craig still gives a strong performance as Mikael Bloomkvist,which wisely only allows the characters softer side to be seen in only a few glimpses,and for the rest of the film to have him be wonderfully gruff,which is highlighted most in the film when Mikael brushes away everyone and everything around,as he and the audience become completely obsessed in finding even the smallest clue to the expanding case.After reading that director David Fincher had to go through a huge amount of battles for his chosen leading actress,I was absolutely thrilled to see Rooney Mara give an astonishing performance as Femme Fatale Lisbeth Salander.Along with showing a stunning,bubbling burning rage,Mara shows a chilling,perfectly executed fragile side to Salander,that along with Fincher's brilliantly atmospheric "wilderness" directing make this an intense,edge of the seat thrilling, modern (Nodic-influence) Film Noir epic.
Final view on the film:
A truly chilling Nordic Film Noir,with tense,atmospheric directing,a mostly rock-solid screenplay,a wonderfully haunting score and an astonishingly deeply raw and fragile performance