When thinking of directors to take on the US version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it is hard settle on anyone more perfect for the job than David Fincher. Having made his name with Se7en, he is no stranger to twisted stories and shows no fear when it comes to subjecting the audience to deeply unpleasant things. This he does with aplomb in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo delivering a film that, unusually for a US adaptation, proves more than a match for the original Swedish take on Stieg Larsson’s book.
Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, a publisher who has just been through and lost a bruising libel battle with a shady businessman. With his reputation at an all-time low, he steps back from his investigative magazine when he is drafted into solve a long standing murder mystery by retired businessman Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer). Nearing the end of his life, Henrik wants to know what happened to a beloved niece who mysteriously disappeared from the family island in the north of Sweden never to be seen again. She is presumed dead and Henrik suspects that one of his own family members did the dastardly deed. Mikael sets about his investigation but it isn’t until he is allowed to bring in Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) as an assistant that he really begins to make headway. Lisbeth is a troubled young woman and ward of the state who is suffering at the hands of her guardian. She is also something of a genius when it comes to hacking and ferreting out information that others don’t want the world to see. What they will uncover is far more sinister than anyone expected.
With Fincher fresh off the success of The Social Network and working from a story that seemed tailor made for his talents, expectations were very high for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Happily, it does not disappoint. Fincher has delivered a film that is every bit as compelling as the Swedish version and that feels no less authentic for its translation into English. It helps that he has retained the cold, unforgiving Swedish countryside as his set and that the film seems to have been made without any compromises to the more sensitive sections of the film-going audience for whom Swedish torture films are not high on the agenda.
The Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was excellent - thanks to Noomi Rapace’s brilliant take on Lisbeth – but it was also a difficult watch. There are a couple of really harsh scenes in there that are hard to stomach. Foolishly, I thought that the Hollywood version might deliver something a little more palatable. Alas, I was wrong. So very wrong. Another director might have chosen to shy away from the grim detail but Fincher revels in it. If anything it is actually more visceral than the original and there are scenes that will linger with you for days afterward. This is particularly true of the pivotal scene involving Lisbeth and her abusive legal guardian Bjurman (Yorick Van Wageningen). It burns itself into your brain and is probably the most uncomfortable scene that you will see on film this or any other year.
The other sticking point was always going to be Mara’s performance versus the career making turn that Rapace put in. I have to say that the Swedish woman just about shades it. While Mara is as determined and courageous in her take on Lisbeth as Rapace was, she just isn’t as compelling. To be fair to her, it is a slightly more subtle performance than Rapace’s aggressively in your face effort but she needs to put a bit more life into it the next time around. Craig is dependably solid as Mikael – it’s a role that really takes a back seat to Lisbeth anyway – and the rest of the cast all do well. It is strange though to hear everyone including the Americans in the cast attempt a Swedish accent except Craig – it’s like he’s beamed in from elsewhere and it is slightly ajar with what’s going on around him.
There’s a real problem at the heart of the script, however, in that it takes ages for Lisbeth and Mikael to start working together. The film springs to life when they do so you end up wishing that they’d come across each other much sooner. And because the book is heavy on detail, we have to endure a slightly pointless and far-fetched epilogue.
Nevertheless, this is really well made and acted and, if you can stomach the more gruesome elements of it, it is a fine thriller that will stay with you for quite a while.
Stars: ****
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