The most expensive English dubbing ever!

Rating: 5/10 (10 February 2013)

When Michael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) editor of the Millennium investigative journal becomes successfully sued for libel after reporting a story delivered by unchecked sources, his career and beloved paper seem to be in free-fall. Thus when offered lucrative employ by billionaire and family patriarch Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to solve a decades old mystery about the disappearance of his niece, he decides to take up the opportunity. As the clues start appearing the mystery starts to get bogged down and soon Michael decides to seek assistance with a reclusive computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a rebellious youth, who has become a ward of the state due to her destructive behaviour.
Based on the book by crime novelist Stieg Larsson, "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" is a second movie take on the story, after its Swedish predecessor, directed by Niels Arden Oplev was released just two years prior. Hence the issues stemming for inevitable comparisons, reinforced by both movies strongly following the source material. Mostly a scene for scene replica, but with differing directorial sensibilities, Fincher delivers a more cold and murky atmospheric version, with superior framing but one which failed to entice with its protagonists as strongly as Oplev's version. Whereas Rooney Mara does perfectly fine as Lisbeth Salander, somewhat more reclusive, detached and condescending, she lacks the same animalistic bite that Noomi Rapace provided, in my opinion evidently losing the battle to claim the character as her own. Daniel Craig imbues an increased sense of presence to Michael Blomkvist, although the absurdity of having the movie set in Sweden played by English speaking characters is never more evident, when the current James Bond attempts to add a weird twang to his accent to miraculously 'change' into a Swede.
Admitedly a huge David Fincher fan, "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" seems like an immense waste of time and money for viewers of the Swedish version. Even more so, that the American version actually feels inferior with character exposure dealt with less sensitivity and finesse, making it feel more forced and lacking the same flow. While focusing on creating a shadowy backdrop Fincher also fails to create a sense of familiarity with the key Vanger family and their decade-old mysteries, affording much less attention to Henrik, Martin or Cecilia. Oplev may have lacked the same opulence in shots, but manages to add more meat to the mystery, in part because he creates a sense that the island on which the Vanger's live is in itself one of the key characters to the story. In general Fincher seemed partly disinterested with conveying the story and character interaction, introducing small changes which actually hurt the gist of the Blomkvist-Salander relationship and failing to offer anything, which I wouldn't prefer to watch in the Swedish version. That said all three Stieg Larsson "Millenium" novels were filmed in Sweden, while only the first was artistically successful, the other two poor conceived follow-ups which afford Fincher vast space for delivering his improved version.