CINEMA The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

5 Star

Published in 2005, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (or Men Who Hate Women, to translate its original title) was a phenomenal success in its native Sweden. Along with its two subsequent instalments, it was adapted into a six part series for Swedish TV which was then edited for release worldwide as three films. Noting the popularity of the books and films, Hollywood has embarked on its own adaptation of the series.

David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a faithful and satisfying adaptation of a complicated book."

After losing a libel case that destroys both his credibility and finances, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist is contacted by industry magnate Henrik Vanger to write his biography, while using the information provided to investigate his family for the disappearance and presumable murder of his niece some forty years previously.

To this end, he enlists the assistance of Lisbeth Salander, a complex, antisocial and gifted computer hacker with a talent for digging up people’s darkest secrets. Which is just as well, as the truth turns out to be more shocking than either of them could have imagined…

The main problem any new version of an already popular film will inevitably face is comparison to its predecessor. However, Fincher’s effort bares enough of his hallmarks to make the film distinctive in its own right. Although the decision was made to have the whole cast speak in English, the film retains the Swedish setting. It’s a wise move, as the rural isolation of the island setting would not translate vey well to (presumably) small town USA. Oddly, Daniel Craig’s Blomkvist is the only character in the film without any semblance of a Swedish accent, although it does serve to set him apart from the collection of “thieves, misers and bullies” that Vanger has hired him to investigate.

The harsh and unforgiving Swedish winter gives no quarter to those who brave it, and is just as much of an obstacle to the investigation as Vanger’s taciturn family. Small touches, like having to breathe on a pen to keep it writing in the cold, highlight just what an arctic climate Swedes have to deal with. The atmospheric score by Atticus Ross and Nine Inch Nails’s Trent Reznor complements the bleak and empty surroundings of the film, as well as unnervingly heightening tension in apprehensive scenes, especially if you’re already aware of what’s about to happen.

The emotional and psychological complexity of Lisbeth is a daunting prospect for any actress, even without having to follow such a memorable and star-making performance as Noomi Rapace’s. However, Rooney Mara embodies the troubled young woman just as completely. Perhaps it helps that she was previously a relative unknown; if someone like Scarlett Johansson or Carey Mulligan had been cast in the role, it may have come across as just that: a famous actress performing a character, but Mara utterly becomes her in every respect. It’s not just a physical transformation, although Lisbeth’s slender frame, sunken features and numerous tattoos and piercings are important aspects of her character.

The film does not shy away from the story’s more controversial – and downright deplorable – aspects.

Neglected and abused throughout her life by those responsible for her care, she is victim, survivor and avenger rolled into one; a storm of repressed fury contained within a single emaciated body. It’s unusual these days for a film to have a full title sequence, but it’s precisely this surging rage that is personified by the opening’s cyberpunk imagery and accompanying industrial cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’. Occasionally, Lisbeth’s dry sense of humour is allowed to come out, such as when she is asked for her personal opinion of Blomkvist after performing a background check on him, where she replies, “He performs cunnilingus; not often enough in my opinion.” Just as significant is her frustration with people who cannot think as quickly as her, her refusal to justify or explain herself, and her anger towards those who try to impose on her life. All she wants from other people is for them to just leave her the hell alone. Her gradual warming towards Blomkvist is from her realising he is not trying to help, save or control her in some way. He treats her as an equal and she responds in kind, at one point even apologising for hacking into his back account.

Any adaptation will be required to make cuts of its source material, but, in this case, the material left out serves to render the story more streamlined and thus easier to follow. In spite of this, those familiar with the books will still be able to pick out minor characters who come into greater prominence later, such as Blomkvist’s sister Annika, or Lisbeth’s sometime partner Miriam. Despite much of the remaining story focusing on the mystery, the investigation into it is skilfully pared down from scores of pages of intricate research to several choice shots of the relevant connections being made after hours of implied scrutiny.

The film does not shy away from the story’s more controversial – and downright deplorable – aspects, specifically its instances of rape and torture, or the verbal descriptions and photographic corroboration of the horrific deaths various women have suffered at the hands of a serial killer. Although some of what occurs happens just out of shot, it’s still just as disturbing and squirm-inducing. What nudity shown is presented matter-of-factly, neither carefully framed for perverse gratification nor strategically concealed by limbs and bedclothes.

The prospect of the remaining two books being adapted seems likely – the subject of why Lisbeth was declared legally incompetent (a major plot point) is brought up towards the end – but it does not detract from the satisfying self-containment of the story.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a faithful and satisfying adaptation of a complicated book. Not for the weak-stomached or faint-hearted, it’s a dark and uncompromising thriller that unflinchingly displays the depths of human depravity in all its hideous grotesquery, but also gives us a new and unique heroine to stand against it.