: After the success of the novel, the Swedish-language version of the film, and the way in which the main characters became internationally known, it was a bit puzzling that MGM would green light a (reputedly) 100 million dollar budget for a English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When I saw the trailer for the movie, I thought it was going to be like the American version of Let the Right One In — the Norwegian film about a bullied boy who befriends a vampire who is roughly his age– in that it was almost a frame by frame remake.
So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I bought my ticket to see the David Fincher’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. From the opening title sequence, I knew this was going to be a different experience from original film. Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singing Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” was the first indication, but the title sequence that Fincher put together had shades of Alien3 that captured a kind of gooey DNA mess in a violent succession of images showing a kind of creation and destruction of life. And then the choice of ”Immigrant Song” certainly foreshadowed what was to come in the film — with lyrics full of violence and domination.
Where the Swedish version of the film was sprawling, and at times, an incoherent mess (especially at the beginning), the American version is taut, focused, and sketches out the three main plot lines very clearly. That’s no easy feat because the source material (i.e., the novel) was also somewhat hard to follow in the early parts. I’m sure the screenwriter Steven Zaillian (San Francisco State University alum!) struggled to tell a coherent story in the early drafts, but he knew that the most interesting characters (Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander) wouldn’t cross paths until the midpoint of the film. So his challenge was to make each character’s individual storyline compelling enough by distilling the narrative down to its most dramatic parts. And thankfully Zaillian succeeded in creating a screenplay that weaves three main story lines into an absorbing plot that centers on the murder of teenager 40 years ago (and a prominent Swedish patrician – played by Christopher Plummer — who would like it solved). There’s also Blomkvist’s own problems after losing a libel case (and the company that is trying to bring him down), and Lisbeth’s struggle to overcome abuse by men in her life. Taken individually, these plot lines could make for films of their own, but trying to resolve the conflict of all three arcs in one film is no easy task.
But in the hands of David Fincher, the film succeeds in large part because he’s able to get stellar performances out of his cast. Daniel Craig does a superb job as Blomkvist by bringing a world-weariness to the character in a way that one is not sure if he has any fight left in him — until he gets the job of solving the murder. Energized by what he’s discovering, he digs into the back stories of the Vanger family, their ties to Nazism, the money they made through the construction of the Swedish railroad, and their petty rivalries. On the way to solving the murder, Blomkvist partners with Lisbeth — who’s a gifted investigator and computer hacker wonderfully played by Rooney Mara — and in the process, the two of them help each other both professionally and emotionally. Blomkvist is a progressive whose life work is to check the power of corporations and highlight injustice. Lisbeth is product of abuse by both men and the state — and that leaves her suspicious of almost everyone and their motives. The two of them do make a good team and because of their tenacity (and Lisbeth’s protective nature of those she loves) they are able to get at the heart of murder mystery and take on the corporation that almost bankrupted Blomkvist (though this is Lisbeth’s undertaking as a way to defend Blomkvist from those who have hurt him).
The film is has some very graphic scenes of rape, images of dismemberment, torture, and other unpleasant things. But this is what author Stieg Larsson wanted to highlight: how power in Swedish society is deeply rooted in fascism, misogyny, and anti-semitism. Yes, these are deeply depressing things, but The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo really puts a spotlight on the human drama in a captivating way that will have you talking about the film long after you leave the theater.
: Less science fiction than an exploration of the “do over” in life. The film’s premise is that on the night when another earth appears in sky, Rhoda (Played by the film’s co-writer and producer, Brit Marling) driving home from a party to celebrate her senior year of high school and her admittance to MIT, crashes into another car killing a woman, a small child, the woman’s unborn child, and severely wounding a John (Played by William Mapother who is best known as “Ethan” from the TV show LOST). Rhoda, you see, was transfixed by the sight of the other Earth, and didn’t bother to pull over to check out the new planet in the sky. Instead, she drove at full speed while looking up at sky, and well, crash, boom, bam. Flash forward to “four years later” and Rhoda (now a young woman) is getting out of jail for drunk driving and presumably involuntary manslaughter. She lives with her parents and tries to reintegrate into society by taking a job as a janitor at her old high school. While tooling around the Internet, she sees a website offering a free ticket to the other Earth — and all she has to do is write a 500 word essay explaining why she would like to go, which she does. Still suffering from guilt over the accident, she tracks down John, to apologize for what she did. When she finally meets him, she starts to tell him who she is, but then chickens out and claims she’s from a cleaning service that’s offering a “free trial.” John’s life is a mess. He was in a coma after the accident, and now he spends his days drinking and generally holed up in his house. Everything he loved is gone: his family, and his career as a respected musician and college professor is pretty much over. Rhoda tries to clean up the mess she made by helping John get his surroundings organized, and in the process the two of them fall in love.
Steve Carell excels in playing funny, but wounded characters, and he’s at it again in Crazy Stupid Love. The film starts with a break up. Carell’s character (Cal) is having a positively dispassionate dinner with his wife, Emily (played wonderfully by Julianne Moore). He thinks they are having a tough time ordering off the menu, but she is just having a tough time with their marriage, and she blurts out that she wants a divorce. Cal is a classic Carell nice guy, who doesn’t have much in the way of pizzaz (and knows it). He moves out, and attempts to “move on” after getting advice from Jacob (Ryan Gosling) — a rich barfly who’s quite handy with the ladies — about how to pick up women. Cal gets a make over, and does get laid quite a bit, but he loves his wife, and wants nothing more than a chance to get back with her. Because this is a romantic comedy, there are things the characters do and say that come back to bite them later on in the film.