A Decent Doppleganger?

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2011)

***Update*** I just screened the Swedish trilogy... They are riveting. The Fincher picture is better filmed, but isn't. Riveting that is. The Swedish characters have more depth, they aren't expanded into iconic figures as are Finchers', they are more real. Rapace would NEVER show a romantic interest in Blomqvist as Mara does at the end of the US pic; there's an expectation that everyone should swoon over Daniel Craig. Which is off kilter. She would never buy him an expensive gift - she would barely offer a thanks. We'll see what the next two are like.
Back to my review of the USA version . . .
Having watched "TGWTDT USA" last night I'm not really convinced that it needed doing. Yes I liked the plot changes; they tightened up the story and allowed time to be spent in a few other parts of the script (notably in the rape and sex scenes). But was it worth $100 million to do a remake when the original is still playing on movie channels? Probably not.
The opening credits are impressive, but seem to relate more to a new "Batman" than this picture. A sign of having way too much money available in the budget. They got the film off to a little bit of a confusing start.
I admit to not being a Daniel Craig (Mikael Blomkvist) fan, frankly he reminds me more than a little of an evil gnome of some sort, a Rumpelstilskin (which does however fit well with the Nordic locale of this picture). He does his usual perfunctory job in this film adding nothing really that we hadn't seen from Michael Nyqvist. For me, he was a little too fit and hunky for the role; Blumqvist is a journalist not a fitness trainer and needs the associated love handles and pot belly of a professional scribbler. Was I the only one who noticed the resemblance of Blumqvist's daughter in the movie to Michael Nyqvist?
Rooney Mara is very good in her role as Lisbeth Salander, but not any better that Noomi Rapace. She (Mara) does borrow so much for her performance from Rapace's work, that it's difficult to give her full credit. I think Rapace, from her acting, was more believable as a hacker, as a victim and as a vengeance taker. (I will admit that I'm always suspicious when an actress from a billionaire family gets a plum role or recording contract which work against my consideration of Ms Mara. {"Daddy can I be a model, an actress and a singer today?")
Where this production catches up to the previous version in my rating is in its cinematography; a hundred million goes a long way to creating exactly what the writer and director want the audience to see. And this production certainly does that. It is brilliantly filmed. The picture also is notable for its dramatic and highly visual scenes of violence and sex, perhaps the most graphically accurate ever put to screen.
Good on David Fincher. Well done.