The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Year: 2011
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer & Stellan Skarsgard
Runtime: 158 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 21/03/23
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer & Stellan Skarsgard
Runtime: 158 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 21/03/23
'You will be investigating thieves, misers, bullies. The most detestable collection of people that you will ever meet...my family.' - Henrik Vanger
Due to his sudden death of a heart attack in 2004, Swedish journalist and political activist Stieg Larsson never got to witness the massive success that his ‘Millennium’ trilogy of novels would have following the publication of the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in 2005.
The immediate critical and commercial success of the novel saw both a Swedish language film and a Hollywood film quickly rushed into production. The Swede’s managed to pump out films based on all three of Larsson’s books in 2009 (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest), whereas the Hollywood production released two years later, and only the first book was ever adapted despite a strong critical and commercial reception.
Released just a year after The Social Network, David Fincher was riding on a career high, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was set to propel him even higher.
After losing his job at Millennium Magazine, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) agrees to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, which happened forty years ago, at the request of her great-uncle Henrik (Christopher Plummer).
Under the guise of writing Henrik’s memoir, Mikael digs through the family’s sordid history, uncovering a number of motives for Harriet’s silencing.
Meanwhile, private investigator Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), keeps tabs on Mikael whilst fighting back against a corrupt patriarchal system designed to make her powerless.
I’m going to state now, I have not read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nor have I seen the Swedish language film (though I own both), so some of the criticisms I have against this version may be problems inherent with the original text that I’m simply not aware of.
Honestly, I find the story of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo kind of underwhelming, and it pretty much all comes down to the pacing. The actual plot is engaging, has plenty of nice reveals, and the characters are excellent. But it all happens so slowly, the two main characters stories feel too separate for too long, and the last twenty minutes or so feel like they belong in a different film entirely.
The immediate critical and commercial success of the novel saw both a Swedish language film and a Hollywood film quickly rushed into production. The Swede’s managed to pump out films based on all three of Larsson’s books in 2009 (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest), whereas the Hollywood production released two years later, and only the first book was ever adapted despite a strong critical and commercial reception.
Released just a year after The Social Network, David Fincher was riding on a career high, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was set to propel him even higher.
After losing his job at Millennium Magazine, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) agrees to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, which happened forty years ago, at the request of her great-uncle Henrik (Christopher Plummer).
Under the guise of writing Henrik’s memoir, Mikael digs through the family’s sordid history, uncovering a number of motives for Harriet’s silencing.
Meanwhile, private investigator Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), keeps tabs on Mikael whilst fighting back against a corrupt patriarchal system designed to make her powerless.
I’m going to state now, I have not read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nor have I seen the Swedish language film (though I own both), so some of the criticisms I have against this version may be problems inherent with the original text that I’m simply not aware of.
Honestly, I find the story of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo kind of underwhelming, and it pretty much all comes down to the pacing. The actual plot is engaging, has plenty of nice reveals, and the characters are excellent. But it all happens so slowly, the two main characters stories feel too separate for too long, and the last twenty minutes or so feel like they belong in a different film entirely.
Without spoiling anything. It takes over an hour for Mikael and Lisbeth to meet, and until this point they have their own problems. But Lisbeth suddenly resolves her thing and joins Mikael on his investigation. Once this is done, the last twenty minutes sees Lisbeth helps restore Mikael’s reputation as a journalist and get his job back at Millennium which seems a little out of character for her, especially seeing a Mikael does nothing to help Lisbeth. She’s a manic pixie dream girl; although Mikael may not be head over heels for her, she swoops in me solves all of his problems without him having to even lift a finger, and it blunts the impact of the story because of it.
The reveal as to who is behind Harriet’s disappearance and why feels somewhat cliché and whilst I wouldn’t say it’s one you can see coming, you’re not exactly surprised either, I think mostly because in the case of this film you wouldn’t hire such a high-profile actor to play an otherwise mostly background role. The moment you meet the character in the first act you know that they’ll have a huge role to play in the story because of who is playing them, and then the reveal near the end that it was them all along doesn’t feel particularly well earned because it was so obviously telegraphed in such a dumb way.
Despite these story setbacks the performances of everyone involved is second to none. Craig brings the same kind of energy and mystery to the role that made him such a presence in the recent Bond films, and Mara gets to showcase exactly what she’s capable of in her first major role after blowing everyone away in the opening scene of The Social Network.
Plummer is usual refined and gentlemanly self, and I do feel as though he is underutilised somewhat in the story. His character falls ill around the midway point after only having been in a couple of scenes before that and then only re-appears once Mikael and Lisbeth have solved the mystery.
I think my favourite scene in the film is where Henrik is explaining to Mikael which houses on the island belong to which family member, who talks to who, who’s a Nazi, and who has what stakes in the family business. Initially it might seem like exposition, but it’s delivered in a way that actually tells you a whole lot without really saying very much at all, and the chemistry between Plummer and Craig is electric, particularly with the accidental humour that seems to be fed into the conversation as Mikael struggles to keep up with the complicated family dynamic.
It's the performances that make the film, and though the story may fail to deliver in some areas, you can rest easy knowing that at least you’ll be carried through it by some excellent acting.
The reveal as to who is behind Harriet’s disappearance and why feels somewhat cliché and whilst I wouldn’t say it’s one you can see coming, you’re not exactly surprised either, I think mostly because in the case of this film you wouldn’t hire such a high-profile actor to play an otherwise mostly background role. The moment you meet the character in the first act you know that they’ll have a huge role to play in the story because of who is playing them, and then the reveal near the end that it was them all along doesn’t feel particularly well earned because it was so obviously telegraphed in such a dumb way.
Despite these story setbacks the performances of everyone involved is second to none. Craig brings the same kind of energy and mystery to the role that made him such a presence in the recent Bond films, and Mara gets to showcase exactly what she’s capable of in her first major role after blowing everyone away in the opening scene of The Social Network.
Plummer is usual refined and gentlemanly self, and I do feel as though he is underutilised somewhat in the story. His character falls ill around the midway point after only having been in a couple of scenes before that and then only re-appears once Mikael and Lisbeth have solved the mystery.
I think my favourite scene in the film is where Henrik is explaining to Mikael which houses on the island belong to which family member, who talks to who, who’s a Nazi, and who has what stakes in the family business. Initially it might seem like exposition, but it’s delivered in a way that actually tells you a whole lot without really saying very much at all, and the chemistry between Plummer and Craig is electric, particularly with the accidental humour that seems to be fed into the conversation as Mikael struggles to keep up with the complicated family dynamic.
It's the performances that make the film, and though the story may fail to deliver in some areas, you can rest easy knowing that at least you’ll be carried through it by some excellent acting.
Visually the film bears a striking resemblance to Panic Room in its colour palette, but The Social Network in its cinematography and editing. Now the cinematography makes sense as Jeff Cronenwelth once again partners with Fincher and you know you’ve struck gold when the two of them work together. But the washed-out colours, bluey-grey hues, and general low lighting employed for Dragon Tattoo gives the film such a great atmosphere. It feels grimy and dirty, similar to how Fight Club felt, but colder and more refined.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross return to compose the score following on from collaborating with Fincher on The Social Network, and whilst I would say they never quite reach that same peak with Dragon Tattoo it’s still amazing to listen to. I also adore the opening title sequence which was directed by Tim Miller (who went on to direct Deadpool & Terminator: Dark Fate), it not only sets the perfect tone for the film, but it looks damn good on its own merits as a dark and twisted music video for Led Zepplin’s ‘Immigrant Song’.
Though the music is great, I have to point out that the sound mixing in the film leaves a lot to be desired. Speech is mixed so quietly against everything else that I could barely hear it. Whilst this can be common in films mixed exclusively for surround sound setups, even when watching it in surround sound you’ll often have a hard time working out what’s being said if there’s any other noise in the scene (diegetic background audio, or non-diegetic score).
Whilst The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo may not be my favourite David Fincher film, I would say it’s of comparable quality to something like Zodiac. Despite the flaws in the story and pacing, the fantastic performances, beautiful visual style, and excellent score do a great job of elevating the whole film. It would have been nice to see the series continue into Larsson’s sequels, but with Fincher’s aversion to sequels and at the time Craig’s difficult schedule filming for the Bond franchise made sure that future instalments were practically dead in the water. But Fincher’s next film would prove to remain close to the Dragon Tattoo formula, but truly knock it out of the park this time around.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross return to compose the score following on from collaborating with Fincher on The Social Network, and whilst I would say they never quite reach that same peak with Dragon Tattoo it’s still amazing to listen to. I also adore the opening title sequence which was directed by Tim Miller (who went on to direct Deadpool & Terminator: Dark Fate), it not only sets the perfect tone for the film, but it looks damn good on its own merits as a dark and twisted music video for Led Zepplin’s ‘Immigrant Song’.
Though the music is great, I have to point out that the sound mixing in the film leaves a lot to be desired. Speech is mixed so quietly against everything else that I could barely hear it. Whilst this can be common in films mixed exclusively for surround sound setups, even when watching it in surround sound you’ll often have a hard time working out what’s being said if there’s any other noise in the scene (diegetic background audio, or non-diegetic score).
Whilst The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo may not be my favourite David Fincher film, I would say it’s of comparable quality to something like Zodiac. Despite the flaws in the story and pacing, the fantastic performances, beautiful visual style, and excellent score do a great job of elevating the whole film. It would have been nice to see the series continue into Larsson’s sequels, but with Fincher’s aversion to sequels and at the time Craig’s difficult schedule filming for the Bond franchise made sure that future instalments were practically dead in the water. But Fincher’s next film would prove to remain close to the Dragon Tattoo formula, but truly knock it out of the park this time around.