The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Steven Zaillian, Stieg Larsson
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson

Cracking an unusual mystery requires the use of an unusual mind.

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) has landed himself in a deep scandal of libel. Blomkvist was intentionally led to bogus conclusions by his enemies, causing the man to publish writings that were easily shown in court to be false. His entire career is on hold and his finances are in complete ruin.

This creates an easy sale for the rich and wealthy Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who approaches Blomkvist with a well-paying job offer. Henrik wants Blomkvist to write the memoirs of his extensive and eccentric family, as well as to investigate a decades old disappearance of Henrik's niece, Harriet Vanger. Henrik is sold on the eligibility of Blomkvist for this task after the writer survives an extremely thorough background investigation by freelancer Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), who finds the journalist to be "clean" of any serious moral turpitude.

Blomkvist quickly becomes engrossed with the investigation of young Harriet, who was last seen standing alongside a parade some forty years prior. He quickly learns this is more than a mere disappearance. Murder might be a very real possibility, and Harriet's fate is not the only one in question. His investigation leads him to a long line of extremely gruesome murders of young women, occurring over several decades.

He eventually learns of Salander's investigation of his own history and, impressed by her thorough if invasive methods, he approaches the young woman for help in this case. This starts the alliance between the two characters, and both lend their strengths toward unraveling a significantly deep and bloody mystery spanning nearly half a century.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a powerful and classic mystery, which is just something we don't see much of any more. The ensemble of personalities that Blomkvist and Salander must investigate is broad, aloof, eccentric and occasionally openly hostile. Many members of the Vanger family do not speak to each other, as their strange and moody history has caused deep rifts and grudges over the years. Blomkvist and Salander must navigate some pretty muddy waters to find any bit of the real hint of truth that lies underneath.

It is, after all, a hell of a mystery. The story unravels with many twists and turns, and carries with it multiple reveals. This is true even after what one assumes to be the final unveiling occurs; the story manages multiple surprises as the darkest corner of the Vanger family history is slowly brought to light.

But it is not the mystery that is the only fascinating feature of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The "girl" herself, Lisbeth Salander, is arguably the most interesting character of the film, and is certainly the personality with the strongest arc. Goth and punk rockers are typically presented in big-budget films in such a shallow and stupid manner, yet Salander's character is fully realized and seems very much alive. Quietly brilliant, yet tortured by society at large, Salander is a genius-level computer hacker who's become ultimately disillusioned with human relationships. She approaches each new encounter with a cold and nearly hostile air that masks an extremely deep desire to make a real and meaningful friendship. "Misunderstood super genius" might be a dismissive way to describe the young woman, yet her drive, intelligence and brilliant inner strength make her something far greater than that usually portrayed in film.

You can't have a character like this without showing some torturous tragedy, and Salander certainly has her time of suffering. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo contains one of the more realistic and brutal rape scenes ever shown in film. It's not to the level of Gasper Noe's Irreversible, but it is certainly bad and rather difficult to watch.

Salander, being the kind of woman she is, does enact revenge, and it is one that certainly invokes the horror and wrath that a woman in her position might feel. The audience's reaction to these two scenes was a little fascinating to me. As might be imagined, there was utter silence during the abuse of Salander; you could hear a pin drop. Later, as her revenge was initiated, there was applause. The audience approved of the victim standing, fighting and striking a blow against her sneering attacker. But, then as the details of her revenge unfolded, and the audience saw the cruel and extremely vicious nature her plan, utter silence again reigned. I doubt anyone would suggest her rapist didn't deserve his fate — he most certainly did — but it is also interesting to me that "justice" can be such an ugly thing to watch and can invoke the same level of pained silence as the crime itself.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is based on a Swedish novel by the same name, written by Stieg Larsson. It is not the first film made on this book; a Swedish adaptation, also by the same name, was released broadly overseas in 2009 and had a limited release in the United States. There has been some grumbling among film enthusiasts on why a US film had to even be created. It is certainly true that the Swedish film was extremely well done and stands very well on its own. There was nothing to correct or to do "better".

However, after seeing this US adaptation of Larsson's work, I think it must be argued that it is also simply excellent. I saw and enjoyed the Swedish film perhaps a year ago, and I feel the US version also offers the same deep and rich tone, the same powerful and multi-layered mystery, and also invokes the same strong and memorable characters. Instead of complaining about the United States' incessant need to remake foreign films in English, perhaps we should just sit back and be happy that we now have two excellent adaptations of Larsson's great book. Go see them both — one of them is in theaters, right now.

This is a Day Two Review.

Rating: (5 out of 5):