The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

Posted 12 years ago by myetvmedia

10/10

“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” 2011 – David Fincher’s Adaptation is Superlative!

New Full Blown Movie Review (No spoiler alerts).

There has been much speculation about director David Fincher’s ability to successfully do a screen adaptation of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”. This internationally best selling novel was originally adapted for screen in a Swedish version two years ago and has seen tremendous success in grossing almost $100 million to date. Having read the English translation of the book “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (originally written in Swedish and entitled “Men Who Hate Women”), and then having seen the Swedish film version that was precisely my question – what can David Fincher bring to this story that will make it better? All the more challenging for Fincher since “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is the first book in the Millennium trilogy of crime thrillers and the essence of the stories relies on its European and very Swedish roots.

Fincher once again proves that he is a consummate storyteller, vividly bringing to life the complicated and intensely violent Swedish crime drama based upon the novel by Stieg Larsson. The opening credits engulf the viewer immediately in a nightmarish dream-like state with common enough elements blended into a confusing drama of images that we instinctively know should make sense but in the dream state do not. Fincher employs a clever and unique ‘James Bondesque’ film style with the sequences that is totally in keeping with the story that is about to unfold. The music is Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” featuring vocals by Karen O (Yeah Yeah) under the direction of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). Reznor and Fincher worked together before on “The Social Network” winning Reznor and his partner Ross an Oscar for original score. The viewer is immediately immersed deep into the perfect psychological state of mind necessary to participate in this fast paced, ingenious, gut-wrenching thriller. Reznor’s musical score for the movie is pitch perfect, taking familiar sounds and digitally twisting them so they are just a little disturbing.

The history of cinema is littered with poor Hollywood remakes of European films. Fincher has not made a ‘Hollywood’ version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, instead he has carefully analyzed the original story and come up with a screen version that is probably close to what Larsson would have envisioned in the first place (were he alive today). Fans will be thrilled. Every aspect of the story down to the minutest detail has been considered. Fincher has deftly selected which parts of the story to highlight from the 841 page paperback publication. This is crucial to this crime epic that follows the story of the very wealthy and powerful Swedish Vanger family across four generations; Millennium, a small publishing company dedicated to publishing the facts at all costs; Nazi political activities in Sweden during the Second World War; a multinational investment company led by a crook, Hans-Erik Wennerström; Milton Security, a company with an international reputation for finding answers; a government office responsible for Wards of the State; and the complicated private lives of the key individuals they embrace.


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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

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