A Supposedly Unusual Mystery that Doesn't Succeed

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2019)

30 April 2012. What makes perhaps for a great fictional crime thriller mystery novel doesn't make for a greatest film adaptation except maybe for a politically correct feel good statement in the guise of artistic creativity. Who for instance would even cooperate with such a young punkish female with no social grace none whatsoever? Though amazing and somewhat suspicious transformation occurs by the end of the movie. The movie would have been much more compelling if the repulsive reactive behavior of those associating with this girl would have been on display and her ability or her surrogate more likely were able to negotiate their way around this antisocial demeanor and obtain the necessary investigative facts upon which this amazing mental talent of a girl could then synthesize such facts into an incredible criminal deductive conclusion, much like Sherlock Holmes and his cocaine habit - What a genuinely valuable script and performance that would have been. What one does get is the almost predictable techno-blackmail scenario in the movie as perhaps the only fascinating and somewhat credible social interactive scene in the movie with the girl in another political statement. What one has however is this anti-heroine nominated for best actress Oscar who supposedly gets our critical sympathy and yet authentically and realistically speaking her amazing investigative ability notwithstanding, it's implausible she would really be able to accomplish what is supposed to occur prior to the occurrences in the movie and thereafter until suddenly the audience is confronted with another persona late in the movie. Somehow freakish and unusual characters capture our imagination and fascination, nevertheless, it is the more subtle and performance of everyday characters that are the most difficult because they require a superior performance to capture and maintain an audiences interest.
The movie, in part, depends on an Addams Family assortment of characters from a Hitler era which somehow become a lost after-image as the movie develops as well as on the supposedly convoluted investigation of an assortment of clues, especially photographic compilation in fine chronological detail, sort of an extended Criminal Minds television series episode much better exploited in Manhunter (1986). This fusion of Point of No Return (1993) and Antitrust (2001), Hanna (2011), and Silence of the Lambs (1991) becomes some less of a mystery with its predictable murderer, loses a lot of its suspense and in this case less isn't more. The character development is weak even though it would in this movie have improved the substance of this movie especially as the movie wasn't supported by major special effects or action sequences. Lisbeth's character also wasn't consistent in her early setup particularly to the extent that her actions at the end of the movie weren't as expected as that might have been. Developed as more of a mystery thriller, even The Spy Game (2001) or The Three Days of Condor (1975) had more of the compelling and attention absorbing suspense than Dragon Tattoo whose post-climatic scenes whose outcomes seemed without surprise or doubt, and even in those instances where the doubt isn't really expected, there is still the "rapt" possibility that can grab one's attention as in The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). After a time, even the storyline line wasn't that emotional compelling or interesting to sustain any strong motivation to watch the movie, unlike the investigative reporting of All the President's Men (1976) or even Winter's Bone (2010) which gritty and riveting cultural milieu sustain a fascinating presence in the movie.
Perhaps one of the best unusual characters, even though mainstream, but directed and emotionally absorbing was found in Terence Young's Wait Until Dark (1967) where Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman who is stalked by some unsavory characters with the possibility of sadistic death on their minds. The ultimate crime thriller that sustains its action, has techno, and intimate relational balance remains Manhunter (1986) which captures unlike Dragon Tattoo some humanness of its horrendous criminal while at the times time provides that background character that seems missing in Dragon Tattoo.