Every now and then a director comes along in American cinema
that changes the way movies are made.
He or she comes on the scene with new insights, innovative visions and a
very distinct personal style and we, as audience members fall in love with the cinema all over again. Today, that guy is David Fincher. He did it with Fight
Club in 1999. He captivated us with The
Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008. He gave us a fast-paced,
entrancing history lesson into our current social lives with his take on how
Facebook began and how its often callously perceived inventor became the
youngest billionaire in the world, with it all happening only seven years
before the film’s debut. This film was 2010’s The Social Network. On December 21, 2011, Fincher made his mark
again with his portrayal of the gripping best-selling novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, again
solidifying his place in Hollywood and his place in cinema history. Fincher
proved again, he’s here to stay.
Just like a great director only comes on the scene every
blue moon, so does a great actress. In Dragon,
that actress is Miss Rooney Mara. Mara auditioned for two and a half months
amongst major Hollywood players like Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Stewart and
Natalie Portman for the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander. Fincher undoubtedly made the right choice.
She is absolute perfection in the role. Salander is the perfect hero. The
perfect heroine. Her physical and emotional androgyny allow her to be both,
making this film so intriguing for male and female audiences. Salander is a 24
year old social outcast, mostly by choice, deemed mentally incapable by the
government of Sweden. She has been
used and abused throughout her life, some of which you read in the book, and see
in the film quite explicitly, and
she does not get emotional. She never gets emotional after such abuses. She
gets even. There is a quality to Lisbeth that is less than human. She might be
described as a lowly crusader, abandoned by the world around her, but yet takes
on its problems with fearless courage.
We watch her avenge her abuses and the abuses of those around her
without wincing. She is violent and her techniques for taking on crime are
unorthodox. She’s the perfect villain and the perfect hero all in one.
Courageous. Brave. These are understatements in describing Lisbeth. She is a
real world super hero with relatable humanistic factors that make us root for
her in the story, and we hope and even pray that there might just be a Lisbeth
Salander somewhere in our real world. As for new-comer Rooney Mara…she has a
very long career ahead of her.
The film is very well-done and it is a very well-made
adaptation of the book. The book is lengthy and it is filled with several
storylines and minute details and as jarring as the twists and turns that arise
from such plot detailing are, it is also what makes the book great. A film
however, in order to keep the audiences attention, cannot have such detailing,
or the film literally would have been about 4 to 5 hours long. Fincher made a few
plot changes from the book to the film, but overall, they were better choices
for the movie.
The cinematography is beautiful. The mood set for the film
is classic Fincher. Dark lighting and undertones, rugged, yet detailed set-design,
fluid camera, and edgy, but up tempo music all keep the plot flowing. The flow of
the storyline, juxtaposed with Fincher's cinematography choices feel very similar to The Social Network. The opening credit
sequence alone hooks you. It’s ominously sexy, and indescribably artistic and
sets the tone for the rest of the film.
For those that have read the book, Fincher does an
impeccable job with choices of setting and character. Strangely, the locations
described in the book and the main characters that inhabit them are exactly as
I pictured them. In the book you are able to get inside the mind of each
character. I know what kind of person deeply inside and out that financial
reporter, Mikael Blomkist (Daniel Craig) is because the book tells me. I know the inner-workings of Salander’s
mind and all of her complexities because the book explicitly describes them. Rarely
is a movie able to capture the description and vivid detailing of a book so
well. Fincher accomplishes a great feat
with this film. As an audience member, even having not having read the book,
you are able to get to know these characters. Fincher leaves room for the next two
films in the trilogy, however, which I think is a good thing. At times, I felt
the book may have been too detailed. Fincher lets you breathe in the film. The
characters have room to grow both on screen and in your mind. In this first
installment, Fincher gives you just enough insight, just enough sex, just enough danger, and just enough brutality to entice your curiosity for the rest of
the trilogy.
See The Girl With The
Dragon Tattoo. There is no debating it. Just see it.
