The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first film in Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy. Directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, the film is based on the first novel in the trilogy, which altogether have sold 50 million copies in 46 countries and become a worldwide phenomenon. The screenplay is by Steven Zaillian.
I must have been living under a rock for the last few years; I didn’t even know the book or even the original Swedish movie adaptation existed. The book was first published back in 2005 by author Stieg Larsson under the title Män som hatar kvinnor which translates to “Men Who Hate Women” Stieg penned the book after witnessing a gang rape of young girl when he was 15 and never forgave himself for stepping in so this is what inspired the themes of the ‘Millennium Series’.
In all after Stieg’s death in 2004 he left three unpublished novels first up the ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ following with ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’ and lastly ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest’. Lovers of the series and the films will be happy know Sony Pictures just green lit the final two books being adapted for the big screen also and yes before you chime in I know there are Swedish versions already.
The director of the acclaimed ‘The Social Network’, David Fincher stepped in to Direct THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in which he does quite remarkably, there’s very few directors that capture amazing images on screen and Fincher is one of them he just knows exactly where to place a camera. Fincher hasn’t signed on to do the next two films just yet, but I have a feeling an announcement will be coming very soon.
With amazing performances by all the cast including Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff and Robin Wright the stand out was by far Rooney Mara, who plays Lisbeth Salander. If you saw ‘The Social Network’ she was the “girlfriend” at the start, even though she may have a fairly light on resume this girl just blew me away by her performance of Salander and as far as ‘method acting’ goes she takes the cake, including getting her ears pierced four times, her brow and right nipple pierced, she was just electrifying on screen.
The story is definitely one that will keep you engaged throughout there was no moments through its 158minute runtime were I was bored or thought something was pointless, even though at times there are a few scenes which are rather unsettling (I’m actually surprised it pulled an MA Rating and not higher). The score of the film written by Trent Reznor resonates throughout the entire film, he really helps with the unsettling nature of a few of the scenes but achieves the same as he did with ‘The Social Network’ with incredible music.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is an incredibly well written, exceptionally shot movie and for lovers of ‘investigation’ type films/TV show’s this is definitely a film for you. I honestly can’t wait to see the second installment and see what Blomkvist and Salander are up to next.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is in cinemas Thursday; I give this film 4.5 out of 5.
You can check out our Featurette here.