A formula whodunit cake sprinkled with intrigue and an unexplored better storyline

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2011)

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is essentially a whodunit layered by a story about an investigative journalist getting his professional dignity stripped from him and then reaffirmed. It's central focus being that the title character Lisbeth, is a bad ass never back down girl who is stuck in between a rock and a hard place and performs several lewd, violent, and otherwise "bad" acts in order to get what she wants. Where the movie loses its center is in emphasizing the seemingly usual whodunit plot line that is the heart of this story, but not its soul, which lies in the personal stories of its characters.
Before the bad stuff, let's talk about the good stuff. The stories of Lisbeth and the whodunit are both crafted superbly. While I can't say either of them are different or challenging the mainstream craft of these types of story lines, it doesn't change how visceral the scenes within are. I don't want to give anything away, but I want to say that there are a minimum of three scenes in this movie that made my skin crawl and my seat feel physically uncomfortable, but in a great way that only movies can manage. Note: This movie is really not for the weak of heart.
Both lead actors do well with their roles. Lisbeth is brought to life in every blank stare and movement, yet something about the whole character seems very statue like, I can't figure out if it's good or bad, but it was believable in any case. As for Daniel Craig, I've enjoyed his turns as James Bond, and this role is like a less secret agent version of that role.
In all reality I look at this movie and I believe that what's been done here is very good, possibly the best film of this year, but I would assert that that statement is not saying much. This has not been a great year at the movies.
However let's address what I was alluding to about the heart of the movie and the soul of the movie. Where the movie spends much of its filming genius and storyline is in the whodunit plot line. Intricate set pieces with perhaps one too many family members and flashbacks and pictures all lend themselves to a formulaic mystery plot line that serves as the driving point of staying with the movie. However, before starting that plot line and for about the last thirty or so minutes of the movie, that's not what this movie is about.
While the movie spends so much time working the whodunit, several other more interesting things have happened and eventually happen that get skated over because the biggest part of the running time was spent on David Fincher's version of noir, without all the pulp that comes with the cop drama. Just about every moment of the film that doesn't have to do with this central theme has more interesting elements, but none of them are spent with much time, its almost like they were put in the movie just so people couldn't point and say, "You left this this this and this out of the movie when they were in the book," but they are thrown together so fast and recklessly that it leaves me wondering if the book truly skated over these plot points with such abandon or if I have to go read it to get what feels like the actual story.
The biggest issue comes from its central characters only participating in the whodunit because there in lies something they want. For all the time the film spends making Lisbeth a bad ass new age woman that gets what she wants for herself, they spend a lot of the film showing that she really is just a dressed up girl, who makes her self out as a vamp. None of this is more painfully shown than in the last shot of the movie, which I'll let all of you experience for yourselves.
While I like this film, something about it is just unbalanced from the story perspective. Why in a story rife with intrigue into the inner ties of corporate leaders and secrecy and shadows and computer hacking type activities must the plot butter up the seen a thousand times whodunit and skip the icing with the stories centered around these overarching elements? It doesn't make sense, and I firmly believe this film misses something from the book. Maybe I am wrong about that, but it makes the film seem unbalanced in that aspect.
And yet it is a good film. I will give it an 8 out of 10.