The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Whether it is due to financial gain, artistic idealism, or whether it is born out of a necessity to bring alternative stories to wider audiences, Hollywood has a knack for remaking films made before a certain date or made by another society. Recently a Swedish book, made into a Swedish film, was remade, Let Me In (2010) is, despite some very good performances, one of the most pointless remakes to date. The film is so visually similar to the original Let the Right One In (2008) and the only plot differences (made in an attempt to tone down the perversion) only succeed in making the film more depressing.

David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) succeeds where others fail because rather than a remake of a recently made film, it goes straight to the source (Stieg Larsson’s internationally acclaimed posthumously published novel by the same name) and is treated like a literary adaptation. 

The now well known narrative follows Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a disgraced investigative journalist as he attempts to uncover the mystery surrounding a 40 year old murder. He is assisted by the eponymous Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a ward of the state, computer hacker and personal investigator. Fincher doesn’t wait to impress but dives straight in with the opening credits. Accompanied by Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song performed by Trent Reznor, Atticus Rose and Karen O, the tone (along with the expectations) is set. Steven Zaillian’s screenplay is a great adaptation of the novel, including many set pieces that the original Swedish film missed out on, as well as making some subtle changes so that audiences well versed with the original book and film will still have some surprises awaiting them. Although the language is changed, the setting of Sweden is not, creating a very familiar aesthetic, but due to the other differences, this is more of a testament to Larsson’s book than a degradation of Fincher’s originality. This is by no means Fincher’s first literary adaptation, or his first film about serial killers for that matter, and he should achieve the same accolades as he did with Fight Club (1999) or Se7en (1995).

The setting of Sweden demands accents in an attempt not to ‘Americanise’ the film, and in general the accents (a second best to using the original language) don’t falter, Craig is the only actor not to attempt an accent. He has proved in previous films that he is able to adapt his voice sufficiently, so the choice not to attempt one is rather odd. Film-wide Swedish accents would have been better although he plays Blomkvist well enough for this not to be too heavy a problem. Also, audiences have already extended their belief to include Swedish nationals speaking English, so one failed accent isn’t too much more for them to accept. Craig’s Blomkvist is a great portrayal, he’s not a hero, he’s a normal human being, and so he’s easy to emphasise with. The film is full of fantastic actors in minor roles, who all step up to fill the film with great performances. In a strange exception to the rule, the remake is better than the original in almost every way. The one difference however is a major one.

With no disrespect to Rooney Mara, who transformed magnificently into Lisbeth Salander and had performed brilliantly, but the portrayal of Salander let the film down. The appeal of the book and the first film was Salander, most films rely on stereotypes so that audiences can understand them with little backstory, ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is part of a trilogy and so is able to prolong the exposition of the characters and have the audience or reader wait to find out more about them. Salander is supposed to be a withdrawn, mysterious character, drawing the curiosity of the audience, instead she’s open and hides very little about herself. She’s also supposed to be (despite being a ward of the state) independent, instead she comes across as needy and dependent, she not only cares what people thinks, she asks permission to do things that in the other portrayals, she just does. In a patriarchal society (The original Swedish title means ‘Men who Hate Women’) it was an independent woman who drew the interest from the audience, not the murder mystery or her male counterparts. In the American adaptation Craig’s Blomkvist is the more interesting character. This single disappointing fact stops Fincher’s adaptation from being incredible and stops it from being a better film than the original Swedish adaptation.

The way that it was adapted and the over-all film, however, show what can be done with the second and third installments of the Millennium trilogy and it will be interesting to see how those can be compared.

Written by Edward L. Corrigan on 31/12/2011