The opening credits of David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo mimic the beginning of a James Bond film; female forms slither across the screen while loud music keeps a relentless beat. Because Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, is one of the film’s stars, no one would fault us for wondering if we’ve wandered into the wrong theater. But no, we are seeing the first installment in Stieg Larssen’s enormously popular trilogy. Only this time, Craig’s character, Mikael Blomkvist, unlike Bond, will be saved from a horrible death by a woman.
The woman is, of course, Lisbeth Salander, an emotionally damaged yet brilliant young researcher whose tattoos and piercings allow her to keep the world at arm’s length. Forced to fend for herself while still a child, Lisbeth trusts few and loves no one, until she meets Blomkvist. A wealthy industrialist, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) wants Blomkvist to solve a 40 year-old mystery—the disappearance, and perhaps the murder, of his niece, Harriet. Lisbeth ends up working as Blomkvist’s assistant, ultimately falling in love with him.
Yellow Bird Productions brought the trilogy to the screen in three Swedish films with English subtitles that enjoyed rave reviews and healthy ticket sales in both the U.S. and foreign markets. American producers, sensing a juggernaut, couldn’t resist remaking the films with a new cast. Craig was chosen early on, but finding someone to play Lisbeth was more challenging. Noomi Rapace, Lisbeth in the Swedish series, declined to reprise the role, reportedly because the three movies were so intense. (Catch her in the new Sherlock Holmes flick). Rather than cast a well known actress (Scarlett Johanssen sought the part), Fincher decided to go with Mara Rooney, a relative newcomer he directed in The Social Network. (She had a small role as Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend).
The gamble paid off. Rooney is smaller and more fragile looking than Rapace, making her violent outbursts even more unexpected and frightening. Her Goth look is ramped up, spiked hair that resembles a weapon, and additional piercings that look painful. Lisbeth tried to kill her abusive father when she was 12. She was ruled incompetent and given a legal guardian, Holger Palmgren (Bengt C.W. Carlsson), who was kind and allowed her to manage her own finances.
When Palmgren suffers a stroke, Lisbeth is assigned a sadistic new guardian, Njils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen) who rapes and tortures her. Lisbeth not only captures the attack on video, but also retaliates by viciously attacking Bjurman (both scenes are graphic and difficult to watch). She threatens to upload the video to the Internet unless he gives her back control of her finances, files positive reports on her progress, and leaves her alone. A subsequent encounter between the two is almost comical. Lisbeth calls his last report on her mediocre and orders him to do better. The bear-like Bjurman cringes in the corner of an elevator, terrified of the waif-like Lisbeth.
The filmmakers wisely decided to keep the film set in Sweden where the bleak countryside and dreary weather add to the feeling of isolation and hopelessness. Blomkvist takes on the Vanger assignment less for the challenge and more to escape his current predicament. A writer for a liberal magazine, Millennium, Blomkvist lost a libel suit against a powerful Swedish industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg). Blomkvist knows he was set up (his sources disappeared after the story was published), and when Vanger promises to hand over information that will truly nail Wennerström, the journalist takes on the assignment to discover what happened to Harriet.
Blomkvist travels to the Vanger family compound, a string of imposing houses on a remote island (the bridge to the island will play a pivotal role in the mystery). Declining to take a room in Henrik’s home, Blomkvist sets up shop in a badly heated cottage on the estate grounds. Each year, Harriet presented Henrik with a birthday present, a framed dried flower. After her disappearance, the flowers continued to arrive. A sign that she is still alive or a taunt from the killer? Henrik, now in his eighties, wants to find out before he dies what happened to his beloved niece. On the day Harriet disappeared, she attended a parade in town. Later, there was a major accident on the bridge, making it impossible for anyone to leave the island, leading to Henrik’s fear that she was murdered.
Henrik warns Blomkvist that dealing with the Vanger family will be difficult. Vanger’s brother, Harald, a former Nazi, lives amidst his Third Reich memorabilia in one of the homes. The other relatives—Harriet’s brother, Martin (Stellan Skarsgård), and Henrik’s niece, Cecilia (Geraldine James)—express curiosity about Blomkvist’s work, but seem more eager to thwart rather than help his investigation.
Blomkvist begins to study everything Henrik has collected—police files, newspaper articles, photographs, and Harriet’s diary. A series of photos from the parade provide Blomkvist with a valuable clue. Harriet first seems to be enjoying herself then, spotting something or someone across the street, her face registers fear and she flees. In Harriet’s diary, Mikael comes across another clue—letters and numbers that turn out to be Biblical references to a series of grisly murders of women going back decades.
Mikael needs a good researcher and Henrik’s attorney suggests Lisbeth, revealing that she had done Blomkvist’s background check. Lisbeth already feels an attraction to Blomkvist and after she arrives at the cottage, the two are soon lovers. That they are tracking someone who has killed women only intensifies Lisbeth’s efforts. She and Mikael discover the killer’s identity at the same time, but it will take Lisbeth to rescue them both.
For her performance, Rooney nabbed a Golden Globe nomination, the only actor in the film to be singled out. (Craig, Fincher, and the film were not nominated). Whether she also is nominated for an Oscar remains to be seen, but, with two more films in the works (The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest), playing Lisbeth Salander will certainly keep her on Hollywood’s radar.
Craig continues to demonstrate that he will not be typecast as a British spy. (The next Bond film, Skyfall, is schedule to be released November, 2012). His Blomkvist is Bond’s polar opposite. There are no shots of that buff body we glimpsed coming out of the sea in Casino Royale. Craig’s Blomkvist seems physically diminished and less resourceful when faced with danger. He’s helpless when attacked by the killer and it’s Lisbeth, not Mikael, who takes on the role of seducer.
Fincher, too, demonstrates his versatility, transitioning from computer geeks to murder freaks. Both films have strong characters and an equally strong storyline, and Fincher shows he is adept at directing both.
Larssen once said in an interview that he viewed Lisbeth as a grown up (and certainly more violent) Pippi Longstocking, the children’s book character created by Astrid Lindgren, another respected Swedish author. Larssen was also a fan of British and American mysteries and Lisbeth bears a striking resemblance to Carol O’Connell’s Kathleen Mallory, a New York police officer who is a borderline sociopath and a computer hacker. (There are nine mysteries in the Mallory series, beginning with Mallory’s Oracle published in 1994). Audiences are quick to embrace characters like Mallory and Lisbeth, tortured souls who still manage to fight for what they believe is right.
Larssen died in 2004 at age 50, before he witnessed the enormous popularity of his books and the films. Already fans are anticipating the release of Fincher’s The Girl Who Played with Fire in 2012 and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest in 2013. Could the series continue after that, surviving the death of its creator? Certainly other franchises have managed. Just ask Daniel Craig.
Read Charlene’s review of the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and her review of the book.
