The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – US Version

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The best thing about this American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that this is Fincher's version of Dragon Tattoo. Not being a huge fan of the original film (sure, it was entertaining enough but not a life-changing experience), I met the breaking news of an American remake with a tired groan. However, when a competent director as notable as David Fincher gets involved with a project as slovenly as a remake, it demands attention.

The good news is that this new adaptation is as good as the original. The bad news is that it is only as good as the original. The weakness in both these films is the story - I just don't find it greatly interesting. There's a lot of character threads to keep track of (a fact, ironically, articulated directly by Christopher Plummer's character in the film) and the pay off for juggling this multitude of components simply doesn't pay off in the end. It certainly doesn't live up to Fincher's utterly brilliant rock video prologue which plays like some nightmarish, f*cked-up 007 opening credits sequence. It's truly breathtaking.

The second best thing about this film is Rooney Mara. Fincher has clearly recognised something special in Mara whilst working previously with her in The Social Network, something that was not readily apparent up on the screen. Nor was it apparent in her breakout film, the remake of A Nightmare on Elm St - I don't even remember her in that film despite occupying the lead role of Nancy! But in the remake of Dragon Tattoo, she single-handedly knocks it out of the park. After Noomi Rapace made the role her own in the previous film, Mara does a wonderful job carving out a place for herself in this work. She's a magnetic screen presence possessing an intensity that conveys this lonely, damaged, explosively feministic individual with remarkable subtlety. We are madly in love with her and petrified of her at the same time.

Mara's Swedish accent is also consistently strong in a film where the elocution elsewhere is all over the place or absent completely. Given this variability, one wonders why Swedish accents were attempted at all. An American film full of American accents despite being set in Sweden would have drawn less attention.

David Fincher is a steady hand and a competent director but his films are better when his stories are less conventional - who would have thought, for instance, that a story about the founding of Facebook could be so fascinating. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is closer to Zodiac for me; competently made and entertaining but not a world changer. The truth is, I found myself wanting to like this more than I actually did.
Stuart Jamieson
www.dragontattoomovie.com.au


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