Directed by David Fincher
Produced by Søren Stærmose, Ole Søndberg, Scott Rudin & Ceán Chaffin.
Screenplay by Steven Zaillian
Based on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson.
The Cast:
Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist
Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander
Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger
Stellan Skarsgård as Martin
Robin Wright as Erika Berger
Yorick van Wageningen as Nills Bjurman
Joely Richardson as Anita Vanger
Goran Višnijć as Dragan Armansky
Steven Berkoff as Dirch Frode
The Plot:
Henrik Vanger employs libel-ist, Mikael Blomkvist, to search for the killer of his grand-niece Harriet Vanger. Mikael in turn employs Lisbeth to help him in the case. Henrik believes that the killer is one of the family members.
The Review:
IGN and DenofGeek were right. This is the most un-Hollywood movie I’ve ever seen. Daniel Craig’s Blomkvist and Rooney Mara’s Salander were so much better than Michael Nyqvists’ Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace’s Salander.
The movie is true to the book.
David Fincher has left out Lisbeth’s mother in the movie (She is not very important in the movie but just wanted to inform the readers).
The movie is not different from the book. David has centred the story more around Lisbeth itself. He has omitted out the useless characters of her mother and her non-hacker friends. David Fincher has made Martin better than the Martin in book. One major issue was that he has reduced the suspect pool for Harriet murder from the whole family to only Henrik, Martin and Dirch Frode. Harold, Isabella an Cecelia are not focused on at all. That just ruins the fun little bit. Not much but little. He doesn’t play around with the other characters.
Lisbeth, in the movie is more of a badass than in the book. She fights with the Laptop Thief. She also confronts her new guardian Nills Bjurman after tattooing him. Lisbeth, in the movie runs Martin off the road instead of him deliberately running into incoming traffic.
One very good thing Fincher has done was to make Anita, Harriet. In the book, Harriet is in Australia and married. But in the movie she is in plain sight. She is unmarried and lives as Anita. I’ve never said this before and don’t expect to say it again but, the movie is better than the book. This makes the movie so much more exciting. Those who have read the book would not expect such a change.
Fincher’s take on the dark novel is much more darker. I throughly enjoyed being immersed into the movie. This movie is so much better and true to the book yet not a complete copy of the book. It’s a good balanced movie. It’s is much better than the Swedish version.
Nills Oplev, the director of the Swedish version, said “Why would they remake something when they can just go see the original?”. Well I think he hasn’t seen this movie nor his own. Or he has utterly lost his mind because this is so much better than his version.
Also, he took his own sweet time on getting Lisbeth in to the search (1 hr 15 mins). He gave us enough time to absorb the intensity of the plot.
I’ve read the book and seen the Swedish version. Now I’m comparing them and finding out that the David Fincher version is better. He has removed the part where Henrik tells Mikael that Harriet tool care of him when he was a kid. And he hasn’t given Mikael any jail time.
Final Verdict:
A awesomely Dark and thrilling mystery which is true to the book yet not a complete copy of it. David Fincher is a genius. Very very rarely movie ls adapted from books, are better that the book it self.This is one of them. Its just one point ahead of the book. But sadly he reduced the suspect pool. So…. 8.5/10.
Quotes:
Henrik Vanger: You will be investigating thieves, misers, bullies. The most detestable collection of people that you will ever meet – my family.
Mikael: Henrik promised me Wennerström’s carcass on a plate. This is not even the plate.
My review for the Swedish Version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
*Note: This review was posted on 6th February at 20:27.. The time is a reference to Leviticus quote:
“A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you, must be put to death by stoning.”
Galactica 