The Hollywood version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has been one of the most hotly anticipated movies based on adult pop literature since “The Da Vinci Code.” Director David Fincher, known for past grisly triumphs such as “Se7en” and “Fight Club,” takes on the first entry of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy with unflinching aplomb but struggles a little bit managing the wide cast of suspects surrounding the mystery of a girl who disappeared 40 years ago.
Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is the editor-in-chief of Millenium, a muckraking magazine dedicated to keeping public and private entities honest. After losing a high-profile libel case against powerful businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg), Mikael resigns his position to contemplate his next move. He is approached by Dirch Frode (Steven Berkoff), attorney to Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), retired CEO and enemy of Wennerström, to solve the disappearance of Vanger’s niece 40 years prior in the fictional remote Swedish town of Hedestad. In exchange for the work, Mikael will be well-paid and, more importantly, get some major dirt on Wennerström.
Meanwhile, social misfit and savant Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) loses her beloved guardian to a stroke. Lisbeth is the expert researcher who did the background check on Mikael for Frode. Lisbeth is a ward of the state, having been declared societally unfit. She is assigned to a new guardian, Nils Bjurman (a wonderfully slimy Yorick van Wageningen), who forces her into sexual acts in exchange for access to her money.
Mikael obtains Lisbeth’s report on him and knows that she illegally hacked into his computer. Recognizing her brilliance, he demands she be his research assistant in exchange for not filing charges and together they discover that the Vanger family has a lot of secrets buried in the past and present.
Adapting Larsson’s immensely popular book appears to have been a bit cumbersome, a fact even acknowledged by screenwriter Steven Zaillian when Mikael comments to Henrik how difficult it is to keep all of the Vanger family straight. However, where Larsson’s prose tends to ramble, Fincher infuses the film more with Lisbeth’s personality – curt and direct. The film is observational and emotionless from the beginning until the characters leave the bleak Hedestad. The gray-scale set and costume design reflect the level of passion she has for the characters and events on screen, changing only when she lets her guard down. Combined with a starkly arresting score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, everything in “Dragon Tattoo” is geared toward the detached existence that Lisbeth inhabits.
The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Craig is quickly becoming the British Keanu Reeves, which is not a compliment for most films. It serves him well as James Bond like it served Reeves well as Neo, but as normal people, the inability to show any emotion is a hindrance. For a character with the passion for outing the truth, Craig is extremely reserved and pensive, and contrasted against the emotionally vacant Mara (whose role demands it), it doesn’t work. Mara, on the other hand, is the barren soul of the movie. She sets the tone for every scene she occupies, providing the tension Fincher is so great at sculpting.
The final item that requires mentioning is the macabre opening credits. Set to Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” the melting and melding of black figures is mesmerizing and disturbing, and perfectly represents this tale of sordid acts that are deeply troubling but cannot go unwatched. “Dragon Tattoo” is hardly Fincher’s best work, but it thoroughly reveals the dark world women who have experienced violence live in.
DIRECTOR: David Fincher SCREENWRITERS: Steven Zaillian (screenplay), Stieg Larsson (novel) PRODUCERS: Anni Faurbye Fernandez, Mikael Wallen, Steven Zaillian CAST: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard RUN TIME: 158 minutes MPAA RATING: R
