The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
I had not watched this before, because I was going to read the book first. Then I tried reading the book, and didn’t get very far. Then I wasn’t going to watch it until I had watched the Swedish version, being suspicious about pointless American remakes. But then it was nominated for me here, and I thought it would be unfair to watch the two versions so close together, so watching this was my first experience with any version.
The first thing to say about it is that although there are some ugly things that happen in this film, it is beautifully shot. There is a lovely shot of a snowy, tree lined drive quite early on in the film and a pervading tinge of green throughout. It’s most definitely a David Fincher film. Different moments and moods reminded me very much of Zodiac, Gone Girl and Alien3.
I loved the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Not as much as their Gone Girl score, but it’s good. And there was even a character wearing a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, which made me smile. Did you know Fincher directed a NIN video? I only found that out today.
The acting was all very good. Rooney Mara is a pretty fearless actress. And she doesn't even eat any pie in this one.
WARNING: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" spoilers below
Stellan Skarsgaard is probably too good – he’s too noticeable to think he’s anything other than the villain from the off.
The story is a typical unsolved murder mystery complete with lots of dead, brutalised women who are just faces on police files. I guess the differences here are the setting (more on that in a moment) and that it is not just about a crime being solved by a detective/journalist, but about Lizbeth Salander as a relentless, tech-savvy, motorbike riding avenging angel.
WARNING: "More spoilers" spoilers below
I’m still not sure if the implication is supposed to be that she killed that guy or that the gangland killing actually happened as a result of her taking his money.
The setting was interesting because of the effort that was taken to make it seem Swedish. I think the setting is intrinsic to the story, the mood and the politics of it, so it was good that they didn’t transplant it to the US. It was interesting that they had Swedish shopping bags, but a little strange that they all spoke English, often with Swedish accents, while reading books and newspapers clearly printed in Swedish. It didn’t really bother me, it was just interesting.
There were some quite brutal scenes in here for a mainstream movie, so I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. I had a couple of reservations about it, but overall it was very good. I had to watch it in two installments, and found it definitely got into my head and under my skin in between and after watching it.
Glad to have watched it and happy to have now completed the Millennium top 100. Hopefully, just in time for us to do a new 2000s list. Which this won't be on, because it's 2011.