Dir: David Fincher
Writers: Stieg Larsson (novel), Steve Zaillian
Starring: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard
Having seen Stieg Larsson's novels all over the subways a couple of years ago, I did some research into the brightly-covered book and learned that it might be something interesting to read. If anything else, I'm a sucker for cultural phenomenons--I begrudgingly read the Twilight novels, after all. So I read all three books pretty rapidly, watched the Swedish films, and though I wouldn't call the books or the Swedish movies my favorites, I do think Lisbeth Salander is one of fiction's greatest characters.
When I heard Hollywood would be adapting the book, I was sure to be disappointed with their directing choice, since the book was so mainstream, and they'd probably want to make it palpable to a broad movie-going audience. I almost jumped with joy when they named my favorite gothic auteur, David Fincher, as director. He's directed some of my favorite films of all time, like Seven, Fight Club, and The Social Network. If there's something Fincher readily understands it's human darkness and high-tension atmosphere.
I liked Rooney Mara as Salander, who admittedly played Lisbeth completely differently than the stellar Noomi Rapace in the Swedish versions. The extras on the blu-ray show how closely she worked with Fincher on getting this character across on screen - with the clothes, make-up, sideways glances, demeanor, and telling camera angles. One of my favorite angles was in the scene after Lisbeth is raped by her government-appointed guardian, after she has washed away the pain, and she sits smoking, thinking and the camera zooms from above and goes over her until her face is up-close, but upside down. She's hatching a devious plan.
And though Lisbeth is the epitome of darkness, Mara still plays her with vulnerability just under the surface. She's intelligent, offputting, and cold but she can still feel sadness, pain, and even love. Daniel Craig also impressed me as Lisbeth's foil--the straight-laced, kind of metro journalist. When I think of Craig, I think of Bond, and he easily shed that persona here with his somewhat bumbling ways. When he gets scraped by a bullet, leaving a slight gash, he is frightened and needs Lisbeth to take care of him. Bond would have kept running after the bad guy, and save the girl for after.
All in all the film impressed me more than the Swedish film and even the book. The story might have been hard to follow at times, but Fincher still had me. I hope he gets to direct the sequels!
The Best: Rooney Mara. She redefined Lisbeth and carried the entire movie; you couldn't look away when she was in a scene. I'm eager to see her in her next role...I hear she's already filmed a Terrence Malick flick with Ryan Gosling (though I'm sure that won't come out any time soon) and she's currently filming mere blocks away in Central Park with Steven Soderbergh for something called The Bitter Pill.
Fact: While filming a scene in a diner, the cast and crew were surprised to find out that Ellen Nyqvist, daughter of Michael Nyqvist, the first actor to play Mikael Blomkvist, was working there as a waitress while attending school. Upon finding out, they wrote in a few extra lines for her, allowing her to interact with her father's successor, Daniel Craig.
Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)
