The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo & You
Stieg Larsson’s international bestseller (meaning they sell it at Target) “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was tailor-made to be adapted by David Fincher. The man cut his teeth on a lot of Dragon‘s core elements: a capable female lead (Alien 3, Panic Room), a serial killer (Seven, Zodiac), and a locale drowning in atmosphere. Dragon‘s a crowd-pleaser that works with Fincher’s sensibilities, but it’s also disappointingly conventional and pretty dumb in some parts. Fincher sets up a complex investigation about an island of ex-Nazi scumbags then sits at a Mac and flips through old photos for two hours. Most boring investigation ever.
Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist fresh off a scandal that left him penniless. He begrudgingly accepts a lucrative assignment investigating the 40-year-old disappearance of a young girl named Harriet Vanger. He relocates to the Vanger family island and starts digging into their filthy family history. The Vanger family’s business logo looks exactly like the Venture Industries logo, so I was pumped about that.
His findings lead him to suspect that someone within the Vanger family is responsible for Harriet’s disappearance. Blomkvist starts hitting dead ends though, so he hires an assistant, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Lisbeth is a hacking wiz – like, way better that than Acid Burn. She’s got some baggage (chained to a bed and raped kinda baggage) but her way around a computer quickly makes her invaluable to Blomkvist. The duo grow closer during their investigation (they bang) and they soon find themselves in danger as they uncover the Vanger’s dirty little secrets.
Mara is, of course, the highlight of the film. She kicks ass – no question. She completely immerses herself in the role of Salander with rabid enthusiasm. It’s a tightly controlled performance – all of her movements and inflections (or lack thereof) are used to maximum effect. She smiles once in the film and this brief moment is infinitely more satisfying than unraveling of the dull mystery. Her rape/revenge bit was the most enjoyable part of the film. Craig’s Blomkvist is as compelling as a bird bath. He never seems worried about his family or career, he spends most of the film staring at his Mac and asking to look at old people’s photo albums.
Fincher allows the fictional Swedish town of Hedestad to play as a major character in the film – with its sharp landscape and bleak remoteness. Few other directors can seam together a world like Fincher can and the barrens of Sweden perfectly reflects the story’s menacing tone. He’s an expert craftsman who’s made an atmospheric thriller that’s well acted and presented – the problem is that the narrative itself isn’t engaging or thrilling.
It’s well worth watching for Mara’s performance and Fincher’s pedigree alone, just don’t expect to be blown away by the Secret of Nazi Island. The film is proof that Fincher could make a movie about two people staring at a Mac and make it infinitely beautiful and entertaining.