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Released on December 21, 2011, Director David Fincher reunited most of his accomplished
crew from his previous film, "The Social Network" to work on this English-language thriller
adaptation of Stieg Larsson's Swedish novel of the same name, which went on to gross a
140-million dollar profit. Daniel Craig stars as an outcast journalist, who is called to
a remote island in Northern Sweden by wealthy magnate Christopher Plummer to investigate
a 40-year-old *** case, that is, not-surprisingly, not as simple as it seems. In an deserved
Oscar-nominated performance, 26-year-old Rooney Mara stars as the title character -- a complicated,
angry girl who is constantly abused forgotten by society. After a slow start, Craig and
Mara's plot-threads converge for a drawn-out, but exciting final act that very carefully
wraps up the entire 158-minute mystery-thriller.
Keeping busy before next year's 23rd James Bond picture, Craig turns in a convincing
and driven performance, even if he's rarely challenged by the movie's script. Mara on
the other hand is given plenty to chew on, as the titular character is certainly one
of the more interesting creatures in recent cinema memory. By way of long, wide, and delicately
framed shots, the action and beauty of Sweden unfolds slowly, but with intensity - through
some brilliant and clever editing that netted this movie it's lone Academy Award. While
Craig is busy freezing on the snow-covered island interviewing people at old folks home,
Mara's story takes on a life of it's own, as we're witness to a particularly violent
and graphic *** scene between her, and her foster-home sponsor. Her vicious and premeditated
revenge surprise a few scenes later is as gratifying to watch as it is disturbing, but
coupled with Trent Reznor's beautifully somber and intense score, it is easily the highlight
of the movie. Besides some gruesomely entertaining scenes like this though, this film is vastly
over-blown, and entirely smug in it's delivery. What was initially advertised as an intense
action thriller instead amounts to nothing more than a low-key investigative procedural.
Craig searches for clues to a decades-old *** that the audience is given little reason
to actually invest in. The mystery and surprise factor stems not from great writing, or carefully
delivered exposition, but rather by keeping the viewer in the dark from what is actually
being uncovered during this investigation. When our heroes finally resolve this case
in an excitingly climactic sequence... the movie sticks around for another 20 minutes,
devoting the remaining run-time to wrapping up a minor plot from the opening act. This
segment isn't inherently pointless or boring -- but poorly paced, and awkwardly assigned
to an epilogue-like role, taking much of the film's steam and strength with it. Besides
some pulse-pounding scenes of tension between Craig and the bad-guy late in the movie, the
real draw here is Mara: who's talent and presence oozes off the screen, executing every piece
of dialogue with a furious determination that is impossible to look away from. Her tour-de-force
performance notwithstanding, this motion picture is rarely thrilling, instead seemingly more
like Law And Order: Swedish division - curiously filled with all the characters speaking in
perfect English. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: "Slow, brooding procedural. Fantastic
performances." That's what I thought of the film, now let's see what you had to say about
in the YouTube comments.
Here's the Rate-O-Matic with our scores for "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"... a SEVEN
and a NINE. Interestingly, your reviews were remarkable consistent: everyone really enjoyed
the film: for Mara's great acting, and it's intense atmosphere, but very few dished out
the top score. You thought it was an awesome movie. Boiling down to nothing more than a
two-and-a-half hour crime-procedural, the only things that really impressed me here
were the performances, and the great editing and music - I thought it was "cool".