The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

7/10

Starring

Daniel Craig

Rooney Mara

Christopher Plummer

Stellan Skarsgård

Directed by David Fincher

Based on the 2005 book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and a remake of the 2009 Swedish version. I enjoyed this movie for what it is, a well crafted crime thriller that captures your attention from the start.

As much as I enjoyed this movie, I believe the Swedish version of this film is better. The Swedish version has this less confident look when it came to the actors. There it seemed more like the world was going on its way dishing them slugs – they now have to find a way to deal with it and make the best of the situation. What I mean is their reactions and facial expressions depicted that which added to the thrill, making the movie feel more realistic, which made it more exciting.

Here, it seemed more like the actors like in most American films, are confident, strong and always have a look of determination.

The movie starts with Mikal (Daniel Craig) losing a libel case. On the other side of things, we have Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) a socially awkward lady we can see straight off has a dark past.

She was sent to investigate Mikal by a lawyer an investigation that made us understand that Mikal was actually set up.

Lisbeth because of her troubled childhood had a legal guardian watching over. Her old guardian fell ill and a new one was assigned to her. He took advantage of the situation to control her financially and exploit her sexually something Lisbeth handled in her own way.

Later on, Mikal is hired by a wealthy man to investigate the disappearance/murder of his ward Harriet. Mikal started to investigate and when he asked for help, he was sent Lisbeth. The two began to investigate Harriet’s murder and that led them down the path of numerous murders of other girls all over the country happening over for years.

The two felt they could handle how deep things went and the complexity of their predicament, but as we watch we too are dragged down the path as things are never what there seem.

If you compare the performances of the leads, the females who played Lisbeth are Mara in this and Noomi Rapace in 2009. I believe from my view Rapace was better by a hair than Mara. Rapace got a lot of recognition for her performance and so did Mara for her performance here. On the other hand when it came to the male lead Mikael, Craig to me was better Michael Nyqvist in the 2009 version.

I fully enjoyed the way David Fincher (director) depicted the gruesome things that happened in the book. As in the first movie the cinematography here is top class, which further carried the thrill need for this crime thriller. The movie was both a critical and commercial success, and Mara got an Academy Award nomination for her role as Lisbeth.

The movie had a sequel done some years later with none of the two main cast returning to reprise their roles.