During its initial promotional push, David Fincher’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” advertised itself as “the feel-bad movie of the holidays,” promising a gritty, grown-up alternative to the kid-friendly Christmas films that flood America’s movie theaters every winter. And boy, does it ever deliver.
Like “Se7en,” Fincher’s previous entry in the neo-noir genre, “Dragon Tattoo” is an undeniably well-made, well-acted and incredibly stylish film that is also violent, uncompromising and sometimes excruciatingly uncomfortable to watch. See it, by all means, because it’s brilliant. Just don’t go on date night.
The film stars Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist who finds himself broke and disgraced after losing a libel suit against crooked business magnate Hans-Erik Wennerstrom (Ulf Friberg). His chance at redemption comes in the form of a mysterious benefactor and a 40-year-old murder mystery. If Blomkvist can discover who killed 16-year-old Harriet Vanger and why, her aging uncle Henrik (Christopher Plummer) —- still haunted by the crime after nearly half a century — promises to provide him with the evidence he needs to prove Wennerstrom’s guilt and restore his own reputation. As he delves deeper into the mystery, Blomkvist discovers that Harriet was on the trail of a killer herself, and that her murder was one of many committed against young women in the area. Perhaps the worst discovery of all: The killer is still at large.
Enter the title character, genius hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Pierced, tattooed, severely blunt and aggressively antisocial, Lisbeth takes a special interest in the murdered girls because of her own history of victimization at the hands of men. Her partnership with Blomkvist is a tense, sexually charged one, but her commitment to pursuing abusers of women is unyielding.
Mara, a relative unknown who underwent a drastic physical transformation to play the role, is tragic, convincing and completely watchable as Lisbeth. Craig has a less meaty role in Blomkvist, who spends most of the film staring at photos and connecting dots for the benefit of the viewer, but to his credit he manages to make a likable character out of what could easily have been a paper-thin audience surrogate.
As impressive as the cast is, the true star of “Dragon Tattoo” is its masterfully created atmosphere. Underscored by a dark, moody soundtrack composed by Trent Reznor, the film’s washed-out color palette and snowy, isolated settings expertly communicate the bleak tone of the story and the emotional remoteness of the characters.
Overall, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is not a movie for the faint of heart — an abundance of grisly crime-scene photos and an especially graphic rape scene see to that — but for a viewer who can stomach it, this dark and complex film lingers long after the lights go up.
