There was a time when it would have seemed absurd that a two-year-old Swedish film was getting an American remake simply because the perception was that hardly anyone in America actually saw the version with those pesky subtitles. But let us not forget that it was only last year when LET ME IN was released only two years after the Swedish LET THE RIGHT ONE IN freaked many of us out in new and exquisite ways. Some, including myself, saw the remake as a slightly better version of the film because the story was better told, while the atmosphere was left largely intact. Enjoying a remake takes nothing away from the original film or the source material. That's an important thing to remember.
So here we are, a year later, and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, a film that most Americans didn't see until 2010, has been remade by no one less than David Fincher, the recent Oscar nominated director of last year's THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Without making any radical adjustments from director Niels Arden Oplev's original film or (from what I'm told by those who have read the book by Stieg Larsson, adapted here by the great Steven Zaillian), Fincher has managed to create a largely faithful, dense mystery peppered with wonderfully realized character (in most cases) and location shooting in wind-swept Sweden that will have your reaching for your scarf and wool cap for fear of frostbite.
Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, a discredited magazine writer sued for an expose on a corporation CEO that is likely true, but he couldn't prove it and the result was his losing his life savings. Rather than go back to his job and his relationship with the magazine's editor (Robin Wright) Mikael decides to take a private investigative job for Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), whose largely loathsome family lives on what is essentially a private island filled with home they live in. Henrik is convinced that years earlier, someone in his family killed his beloved niece, and he wants Blomkvist to interview the family, under the guise of writing a biography of Vanger and his company, and others in the town to find out who did this.
In the process of doing a background check on Blomkvist, a private security team hires Lisbeth Salander (a shape-shifting departure for the relative unknown Rooney Mara of THE SOCIAL NETWORK and the recent remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), a computer hacker with a photographic memory and extraordinary powers of deduction. She's also got great swooping punk-rock hair that seems alive and able to adjust to suit her mood.
And Mara's face is endlessly fascinating to observe, from the eyebrows dyed so light they appear to be absent to the strangely positioned facial piercings to her sociopathic range of emotions--cold and detached makes way toward pure rage when she is cornered or attacked, with very little in between. Make no mistake, Noomi Rapace owns the role of Lisbeth like she will never own another character she plays (she certainly doesn't own the gypsy fortune teller character she plays in the new SHERLOCK HOLMES movie), but I'm a huge admirer of the choices that Mara makes in playing this woman whose survival instincts and gift for retaliation are unparalleled. She's not better or worse or the same; she's just different than Rapace, and that's a good place to be.
During the course of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, we meet the sordid members of the Vanger family, including one of the few seemingly reasonable ones, Martin (Stellan Skarsgard), the long-absent Anita (nicely played by Joely Richardson), a rather jovial former Nazi, and other folks that are just plain cruel because they always have been. Let's face it, hiring Skarsgard to be in this movie is a bit of a tell, since we know the guy can get a bit freaky when he needs to, but I never get tired of seeing him work.
But what this film boils down to is getting Mikael and Lisbeth in the same room together (which does take some time), because something about their combined brain power is explosive. It's also perversely fun to watch his hidden desire emerge for something a little less vanilla in his love life, as well as see her need for a hint of kindness in her life begin to balance the pain. To call what Craig and Mara have "chemistry" isn't quite right; it's a deeper bond. They draw power from each other, and in turn feed us.
Director Fincher is known for his visual sonics and intense pushing of actors until they are so immersed in the material that they aren't even acting. I can't imagine what many of the performers in this film had to go through to emerge in this place, but I do feel like Fincher isn't leaning on the visuals as heavily is he often does. I think that works best for this story, which has so many characters, you feel like you need a guide book. What he relies on an impressive amount is his moody, tense score from SOCIAL NETWORK collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (the pair won the Oscar last year, and rightfully so).
So what's missing from THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO? You'll likely leave the film wanting to know more about Lisbeth's history, and for that, you'll have to be patient; the sequels fill in many of those awful details. Fincher leaves the film on an emotional cliffhanger, and I think for him to say he's not sold on doing sequels that we know he'll do is disingenuous. What's going to be interesting about his approach to the next two films will be that it strays from the serial killer genre he helped redefine with SEVEN, and as he always does, Fincher will find elements of the story to latch onto and build upon. DRAGON TATTOO is a hell of a platform to start that building. This film and this world are sometimes ugly, always interesting, and will feed you something you'll want more of. And if you're lucky, you'll come out of this film slightly more damaged than when you went in. That's not a promise, but it's my holiday wish for you.
