David Fincher remade the movie “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” from the internationally successful book series from Sweden. It’s a story of a journalist (Daniel Craig) working with a talented computer hacker (Rooney Mara) to find a missing girl.
Fincher takes this story to a new level with its tougher portrayal of the main character Lisbeth Salander (Mara). This dark murder mystery does not hold back on any element of the original. Fincher has a well developed eye when it comes to this type of story and this movie is no exception.
The screen writer (Steven Zaillian) does an excellent job of streamlining the 480 page book to give the characters more definition in the film. It also takes the focus away from some of the ancillary plot lines and keeps the main story as its heart.
I enjoyed this film but I recommend it with a warning. This movie has a Rating of R for several reasons; it’s quite graphic in its depiction of a serial killer’s work and in its definition of the main character. There are depictions of rape and murder and it holds nothing back.
The Blu-ray was released on March 20th and has several hours of behind the scenes footage and audio commentary from the director.
Sequel Update: From Deadline Hollywood there are reports of the expected shooting date for the sequel later this year. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are under contract, but David Fincher has not been pinned to the project. Steve Zaillian has written the second installment and is working on the third.
One of the reasons provided for its poor domestic performance was the studio’s decision to release a movie like this during the Christmas holiday. This is decidedly not a warm and fuzzy holiday film. That was a Huge “DOH” on the part of Sony. Whoever made that choice is going to have a negative remark on their end of year review.
