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“Rated R for brutal violent content including rape and torture, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, and language”. From the MPAA rating, I think you know if you can handle “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, a film that sticks a red-hot poker straight into your brain and has no qualms about doing so. It’s also a gripping mystery thriller whose characters are even more fascinating than the case they are following.
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) has left Millenium magazine after a story whose leads proved false land him in court. Broke, he is hired by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the disappearance of his beloved niece Harriet in 1966. With the aid of hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), clues buried for years begin surfacing.
Like the 2009 Swedish version, the film introduces its main players and keeps them separate for a long time. You bounce from Lisbeth to Mikael and just as one tale is about to hit its peak, you switch to the other person until the time is right to have them team up. Meanwhile, you note every detail, wondering which will crack the case. Even if you already know, the direction by David Fincher keeps you enraptured. At one point, the terrifying conclusion that a rape is about to take place hits you. The door slams shut and you're filled with simultaneous dread and relief. At least you didn’t have to watch. But that shot of the closed door was a brief reprieve, just long enough for you to think you were off the hook. Most of the time, you don’t notice editing unless it’s bad. Here, the way the shots are cut add to the bleak atmosphere. They work in perfect unison with the pulse that is the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The people we encounter seem as though they’re always at risk; like they’re wading through a pool of contaminated filth that’s dying to find a way into their system. You can’t quite pin whether Henrik Vanger or his assistant (Steven Berkoff) can be trusted. The ones who seem fine have a film of trauma-induced sadness surrounding them, even if it’s unspoken (like in Stellan Skarsgård’s Martin, Harriet’s brother) Then there’s Lisbeth’s legal guardian ( (Yorick van Wageningen) Harvey Weinstein hasn’t actually been convicted of the crimes he’s been accused of… but if he did do those things, you can’t NOT see him in the character of Nils Bjurman.
The clues, music, editing, direction, even the title sequence are excellent. Everyone is excellent but I want to give special attention to Rooney Mara. She plays her role so well you’d never be able to separate the actress from it… if she weren’t unrecognizable. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is tough to watch but very rewarding. (On Blu-ray, November 19, 2018)
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