The Zodiac

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

[rating=4]

I’m a big fan of the Swedish versions but I held off judgment of this flick until I saw the whole thing. I took out everything I’ve seen before and kept my eyes open for how David Fincher would pull this off. As usual, he hit the nail on the head with the cinematography and the character development was done nicely. So, you have Mikael Blomkvist played by Daniel Craig of the James Bond films disgraced by a trial and awaiting sentencing.

Well, he’s been studied by Henrik Vanger and asked to visit to help him solve a 40 year old mystery. Vanger has been wondering which of his family members murdered his niece, Harriet and wants Blomkvist to solve it before he gets tossed in the slammer. Blomkvist agrees since Vanger says he has some info that could free him. Blomkvist asks for an assistant and is recommended on the one who’s been hacking him the whole time during his trial, a punk-ass goth, motorcycle, pierced and tatted up, Lisbeth Salander. She’s a recluse who does what she wants but is a ward of the state so she has to visit her handler for money and good write-ups. Unfortunately, her regular guardian is hemmed up from a stroke or something so she gets a new handler: some rapist bastard who puts tight reins on Lisbeth’s money and freedom unless she puts out for him.

So both of these people merge into an adventure of mystery, old photos, questions, enemies, serial killers, and more all in the land of Sweden where the story is written. I liked how they portrayed each character and if I may say, Rooney Mara did a bang-up job as Lisbeth. I can’t compare both actresses in each movie but Rooney definitely held the character up to standard. The American version is just as good as the Swedish version and I didn’t think that would be possible. I like how it was all in English but Lisbeth addressed people with the “Hay hay” that Swedes say when greeting.

The landscape was beautiful and the enemies were dreadful. The movie flowed well and somehow Lisbeth got you worked up a bit with her unrelenting behavior and aggressive sexual nature. Rooney pulled that off nicely. Go figure. Yeah…see this flick. It’s dope! And see the Swedish version too.. I love that one too!