Movie Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Starring Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, and Stellan Skarsgård

Directed by David Fincher

Even though I watched the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo only a little over a year ago, I was rather surprised when I went back and looked at my original review because I don't remember liking it as much as I apparently did.  I think, unfortunately, the disappointments of the two subsequent Swedish flicks in the trilogy must have sullied my thoughts on the overall series because I certainly don't look back fondly on the saga as a whole.

That being said, David Fincher's remake falls into the category of "Completely Unnecessary."  It basically seems like a shot for shot retelling and although it's well acted and nice looking, I found myself bored since I'd seen this exact same story before.  Also, watching this tale unfold a second time made me realize that the three distinct storylines that the movie attempts to tell fail to combine and gel in a proper manner causing me to wonder why in the world they were told in the same movie to begin with.

I'm not going to rehash the summary here -- that can be found in the original review linked above -- except to say that this is a movie in search of which plot matters the most.  We've got shamed journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who has just lost a libel suit brought on by a Swedish corporate bigwig. He wants to go into hiding, but he's hired by an elderly retired man named Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to discover what happened to his niece Harriet who went missing over forty years ago.  Henrik suspects that someone in his family is to blame and he wants Blomkvist to get to the bottom of things.

Meanwhile, we're introduced to the incredibly rough-around-the-edges Lisbeth Salandar (Rooney Mara) whose jet black hair, pale skin, and multiple piercings help her to hide a horrible past.  Lacking in any type of people skills, Lisbeth spends her days as a hired hand hacking computers and unearthing personal information for big companies -- sort of a modern day private eye.  Lisbeth also finds herself having to deal with the fact that she's a ward of the state -- I mentioned that "horrible past" that is coming back to haunt her despite her efforts -- and she's forced to report to a new and nasty legal guardian who proves to be a handful for the young woman.

Alone, these stories may have worked fine as their own film, but combining these tales -- Mikael's libel suit, the mystery of Henrik's missing niece, and Lisbeth's life -- ultimately doesn't work.  The missing girl storyline is the heart of the story and when that ends (in a rather unsatisfying way, I might add) and the film still goes on for another 35 minutes, you've got a major problem.  

Fortunately, what this movie has going for it is a very nice performance from Rooney Mara.  Despite seemingly lacking any type of emotion and appearing almost Aspergers-like, Mara imbues a rawness into Lisbeth that is exciting to watch despite the character's seemingly outwardly monotonous dryness.  It also helps that Daniel Craig is much better than his counterpart in the Swedish version of this film and gives Mara something to play off of once their characers meet nearly 100-plus minutes into the movie.

The acting is the ultimate reason to watch this American version rather than the Swedish original because Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig really do elevate this to a higher level.  David Fincher does a fine job directing, but this film is rather straightforward in terms of visuals.  If anything, though, Fincher should have been able to find a way to better edit this thing down and get to the true crux of the tale instead of allowing it to meander as much as it does.

Admittedly, had I seen this remake first, I very well may have given it a higher rating, but having seen the original and seeing that this unnecessary redo does very little to fix the problems its predecessor, I can't help but give this the lower rating that I give it below.

The RyMickey Rating:  C