The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book is B material. It’s a standard crime investigation story, the kind one reads on a long plane ride and forgets about once finished. The Swedish film adapted that schlock in a lifeless and dull way. David Fincher, wisely, infuses a powerful energy into the slow-burn pace and eerie atmosphere, a hypnotic source sorely missing in the previous adaptation, turning a by-the-numbers narrative into an A-caliber thriller.
Admittedly, it takes a few minutes to settle in. It’s the somewhat obvious dilemma that arises when a director sets a film in another country and doesn’t have the characters speaking the language: actors are using different accents. It’s odd having Daniel Craig speaking in his British accent opposite Robin Wright who’s putting on a Swedish accent. It creates a distance from the film, not allowing one to fully jump right in.
Thankfully, once one gets warped into the nihilistic world Fincher’s creating, which comes right after the impressive, if out of place, opening credits sequence played to Trent Reznor and Karen O‘s propulsive and bombastic cover of Immigrant Song, the 158-minute runtime begins to move like a bullet. As shown in his masterpiece Zodiac, Fincher’s a pro at making a procedural run fast.
A part of that breakneck pacing comes from terrific casting. As Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara makes the sophisticated heroine intimidating, vulnerable and disturbingly childlike. Mara creates a character one believes is as smart as the film tells you she is, and the same sentiment applies to Craig’s take on Blomkvist; smart, but not an emotional and physical superhero.
Best of all, Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger. His performance symbolizes the tone and feel for the whole film: creepy, funny, stylish and calculative. Moments are unsettling and inherently comic at the same time. It’s a tricky tone to properly strike, but Fincher and Skarsgård do it in spades.
As for Fincher, this is the filmmaker at his most apparent. Right from the opening credits it is clear Fincher’s not shying away from delivering his slickest vision possible and, oddly, it never comes off as self-indulgence. Even when the camerawork does call attention to itself, it still manages to serve the mood of the piece, and that cold atmosphere is propelled even further with a chilling and invisible score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Fincher rarely holds back in both his camerawork and, equally, the violence on screen. Fincher makes the violence have a visceral impact, emotional weight and never has it come off as “awesome.” When Salander gets revenge on her rapist, it’s brutal, both for what Salander’s doing and what she must be feeling.
By the end, I couldn’t wait to revisit this cold world and the characters that inhabit it. Screenwriter Steve Zaillian and Fincher leave the door open for a sequel, and it’s actually a hint I wish they kept out. Throughout the film Blomkvist’s battle with Wennerström (part of the source material’s conflict-inducing subplot, which concerns Blomqvist’s relationship with the Millenium newspaper) is a far-in-the-background detail. Once it’s brought back after the climax and used as a sequel set-up, it interrupts the near-perfect pacing. Fincher’s thriller is tense, funny, meticulous and visceral, a tremendous work of entertainment from a real artist.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hits theaters December 21st, 2011.