Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Review

Director: David Fincher
Writer: Steven Zaillian
Genre: Thriller


3 Cookies




David Fincher is one of the best directors in the game today, Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig were great in their roles, and overall the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was more polished and cinematic than its Swedish predecessor; but it just simply was not as good.

Let’s say you love a small, hole in the wall pizza joint even though the pizza isn’t that great, the place is a dump, the service sucks, etc. The thing is, this small pizza place has a certain charm because it’s your small pizza place. While it’s not the highest quality of pizza places there’s something about it that makes you keep coming back. What if that pizza place went out of business and was replaced by a fancy pizza chain with better pizza, cleaner facilities, and better service? Sure, it may appear better at first, but the qualities you loved about the old pizza place will be gone and the charm will have disappeared.

It’s the same with Fincher’s American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While it may look nicer, have better production values, and higher quality acting, the thing that made me love the Swedish version so much was missing.

Surprisingly, Fincher’s version has more graphic violence and sexuality than the Swedish version, but Niels Arden Oplev’s film still feels grittier and realer than the remake.

That’s not to say that the new version isn’t highly entertaining and fascinating in some respects, especially a super trippy opening credits sequence and some great dialogue from Steven Zaillian’s script. If you haven’t seen the Swedish version, you will probably love this movie and if you have seen the Swedish version, you will like this movie.

I just wish that Fincher didn’t waste his talents making a movie that had already been made. 

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