The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (CINEMA)
Columbia Pictures / MGM

Release date (US): December 21st 2011
Certificate (US): R
Running time: 158 minutes

Director: David Fincher
Writer: Steve Zaillian (novel by Stieg Larsson)
Composer: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard

Shut your eyes and cover your ears to ignore the injustice; it’s too emotionally severe to see and hear. But should we ingnore it or should we fight against it?

Injustice can present itself in different ways. Maybe in your neighbourhood, place of work, personal life or at home. Depending on the circumstances you should handle it using non-aggressive means, this is not the case when it comes to Stieg Larrson’s, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the first novel in his Millennium trilogy.

At age 15, Mr. Larrson himself witnessed the gang rape of a girl which led to his lifelong abhorrence of abuse against women. He never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, and this inspired the themes of sexual violence in his books.

Now directed by David Fincher, Daniel Craig stars as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. She is the essential character of the story; deeply agitated and emotionally distracted, yet she possesses a talent that makes her even more special and different.

Lisbeth has a photographic memory and impressive investigative skills. She lives her life from one pay-check to the next. She also has to report her receipts and answer to her social worker, Bjurmen (Yorick Van Wageningen). He later invites her to his place to hand her the money that she is entitled to, but instead, he brutally rapes her.

Blomkvist, is the investigative journalist who’s just lost a libel case brought against him and his magazine by a powerful industrialist. He begins working for another extraordinary wealthy man, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who disappeared 40 years ago from their island. Her body was never found and Vanger is convinced that his niece wass murdered and that a member of his prolonged family is responsible.

What first intrigued me with the work of David Fincher was his style of filmmaking. He is known for his dark thrillers, something that I venerate thoroughly if it’s sagaciously crafted and astutely written. With The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Fincher delivers just that. Yet with a little more mystery and darkness.

It feels cold the whole time watching the film and that is because of cinematographer Jeff Croneweth who uses the grays and blues to capture the freezing cold feeling perfectly.

Together with screenwriter Steve Zaillian, Fincher’s version of the story consecrates on central characters like Blomkvist showing him as a father and a diverted lover. He is a nice guy among the cruel men on the island. Lisbeth as a victim is a tough looking and ill-mannered young woman, yet she is fragile. We sympathize with her character, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Fincher has delivered a dark and stylish thriller that releases a sense of paranoia and an eerie and lurid atmosphere. It’s mysterious, horrific, and sexy and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It absorbed my mind and heart and left me thinking about injustice though Lisbeth’s fight against it was captured cautiously.

As an English language remake it also offers more people the opportunity to see and understand the story’s main point – vigilante justice – and to ask ourselves some important questions as to if and when it is ever morally right.