The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

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)

Bridesmaids (2011)

Dir: Paul Feig

Writers: Annie Mumolo, Kristin Wiig

Starring: Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne

I remember seeing this movie in the theater last year on opening weekend with a group of my best girlfriends, all of us giddy at our recently engaged friend choosing us to be her bridesmaids. We all laughed to the point of crying, and I noticed many other movie-goers were busting up as well. I left the theater thinking, yes, finally a good comedy that isn't filled with a bunch of man-boys who refuse to grow up (Apatowian film culture).

Last weekend I watched it again with the one bridesmaid who didn't come with us that first time, and hadn't seen it yet. And though it was perhaps my tenth time watching the film in the past year, I still laughed to the point of hysteria.

Annie (Kristin Wiig) and Lillian (Maya Rudolph) are best friends--and Annie is floundering in adulthood with a failed bakery, creepy roommates, and the worst 'friend with benefits' situation ever (except for the fact that he is played by, and therefore looks like, Jon Hamm). Lillian just got engaged to some nothingburger and has asked Annie to be her Maid of Honor. Cue the hilarity.

The group of bridesmaids, even called by Lillian at one point as a "stone-cold group of weirdos," brings on the laughs from the engagement party to the wedding. Rose Byrne's treacherous Helen serves as a threat to Annie, but comes around by the end. Melissa McCarthy's Megan steals every scene she's in.

The Best: Kristin Wiig, hands down. Not only for her wonderful script, but for her acting. The airplane scene alone in which she becomes inebriated midflight and thinks she sees a colonial woman on the wing? Priceless. (I also have to mention that her impression of a penis had me gasping for breath.)

Fact: The woman sitting next to Kristin Wiig on the plane, who talked about having a dream with Annie in it, is the co-writer, Annie Mumolo. And Melissa McCarthy's air marshal is her real-life husband.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

Rango (2011)

Dir: Gore Verbinski

Writers: John Logan, Gore Verbinski, John Ward Byrkit

Starring: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant

What a strange, enjoyable film! Last year when I saw the previews, I was like, oh that looks like it'll probably be an interesting children's movie. However, upon my husband's insistence that I watch the movie--he even went out and bought the blu-ray DVD to make me--I did. He had seen the movie on a flight last year, and as he is a lover of Westerns, he thought this captured the fun of a Western in an animated movie. Also, who doesn't love Johnny Depp?

But here was my first reaction upon completion of the movie: wow, that is NOT a movie for children. Directed by Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Carribean), the tale of Rango the lizard starts out with a scene that would never keep a child's attention: a monologue. And in this monologue, most of Depp's career roles have been dusted off for the tongue-in-cheekness, and there's even an appearance at some point in the movie by Hunter S. Thompson and his lawyer. Yeah, not exactly kids stuff.

Which is probably why this movie, while making a lot of money, did not resonate well with audiences. You have to be adult-minded and enjoy animation (which is really wonderful, by the way). This is not The Incredibles or Wall-E, which are children's movies with enough jokes to fly over kids' heads to hit the parents with enjoyment. Nope. The story moves like a Western, and while comedic, there are storylines you have to piece together along with our hero. It requires a lot of comprehension skills. That said, the character of Rango and his assimilation in the town of Dirt are endearing and I enjoyed it though there were some parts that felt a little long.

Good job, husband.

The Best: The animation was superb! And I also have to say that I giggled every time the little owl mariachi band narrated the story, and about how the hero was obviously going to die the whole way through.

Fact: The Mayor's suspenders, hat, shirt, and voice is an homage to Noah Cross, the character John Huston portrayed in the movie Chinatown. Chinatown's plot also revolved around a mystery about stolen water. (Oddly, I don't own Chinatown though I would consider it one of my favorite movies. Maybe I should remedy that.)

Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)

Beginners (2011)

Dir: Mike Mills

Writer: Mike Mills

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent

I enjoy the quietness of this film. The premise of the movie is simple: a father (Plummer) tells his son (McGregor) that he is gay after his wife dies. He's been gay his entire life. The son not only deals with learning this, but the fact that his father is sick as well. There's a bit of a love story in there, too. In this day and age where films with this kind of plot are usually filmed with the intention of reaping all the manipulative sentimentality they can, Beginners feels genuine and quiet and unassuming. It guides you through a personal story with an intimate lense.

Director Mike Mills accomplishes much with his simplicity. Aparently based on his own life and family, the movie makes my heart stir without making me squirm. Here's just a guy trying to figure it out; 'it' being life, and the guy being just like everyone else. It's sad and poignant but moving in a non-corny way (that says a lot if you know that there is a dog that McGregor talks to through the movie). It was my favorite film of 2011.

Christopher Plummer will surely go on to win an Academy Award for this; nobody else in the category holds a flame to his deep performance. I just wish it was recognized more for the great movie it is--it's just too quietly not tooting it's own horn, but for that I treasure this movie.

The Best: Christopher Plummer as Hal. I can't say more about his wonderful, admirable, and yes--quiet--performance.

Fact: Director Mills is married to writer/director/actor Miranda July in real life. Last summer she also released a film called The Future, which had a cat named Paw Paw that spoke as narrator. They both released movies with verbal pets! Beginners featured the dog Arthur's dialogue in subtitles.

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Dir: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates

I remember seeing this movie in the theater last June with my best friend Kelly and my dad. I knew hardly anything about the plot, just that the trailer showed off a great cast and there's nothing I don't love about a movie set in Paris - one of those cities I have felt romantic about all my life, despite never having traveled there. It's all the cinema's fault, really, what with Before Sunset, Moulin Rouge, Amelie, and the Godard and Truffaut and Deneuve.

There's also something about the 'oldness' of Paris. Living in the United States, there's not exactly castles and centuries-old monuments at every turn. Paris, like many parts of Europe I've seen in films, looks like it's out of another era. Which is the perfect setting for this movie.

Owen Wilson plays the screenwriter Gil Pender, who loves Paris and is trying to complete his novel. His novel, and he as a person, seem to revolve around the idea (and ideals) of nostalgia. His fiancé - played to wonderfully bitchy effect by Rachel McAdams - is not amused by Paris, nostalgia, or his attempts at being a novelist (she prefers his lucrative "hack of a screenwriter" career).

I've not been a fan of Woody Allen films for a while - their protoganists, even when not played by him, are usually just as neurotically annoying (save for Vicky Cristina Barcelona), but Wilson plays those neuroses down with his own brand of charm and wonder. I was, indeed, charmed by the whole film. Part of that was the locale, but the other part was the inspiration reverberating across the screen - the characters, the scenes, the glee in partaking of the time-travel adventure with Gil. Yes, time-travel.

To see Gil wander into the good company of the 1920s Paris literary and art scene, was at once shocking to me as someone who had no inkling of the plotline from the trailer (best trailer I've seen in a while in retrospect!) and also as someone who loves literature and art and historical inside jokes. I laughed, a lot.

The movie was wonderfully fun, and I enjoyed the overarching theme about missing the present while being stuck in the past. All of the acting was superb (from Michael Sheen's pedantic character to Alison Pill's Zelda Fitzgerald, it was a great ensemble) and the writing and directing were near perfect. One of my favorite movies of 2011, and perhaps ever.

The good news is that my husband, Jesse, has surprised me with a trip to Paris next month, which was part of the reason I re-watched this. I cannot wait to walk along the Seine like Gil, wait on those steps at the Sacre Coeur, and maybe, just once, feel like I'm in a different time.

The Best: While Wilson was a great protagonist, the real scene-stealer was Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway. He brought to life the giant persona and wordsmith - he spoke as he wrote, it would seem, and I loved it.

Fact: I don't always agree with film critic Roger Ebert (though I love him!), but I just wanted to share a quote from his review of this movie, which I completely agree with - "There is nothing to dislike about it. Either you connect with it or not. I'm wearying of movies that are for 'everybody' – which means, nobody in particular. Midnight in Paris is for me, in particular, and that's just fine with moi."

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)