Thursday, December 29, 2011

Reel Life: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Rooney Mara, Rooney Mara, Rooney Mara….

Where do I start? Having not seen the Swedish version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and not having read the book, I went into David Fincher’s version with no real expectations whatsoever….Rooney Mara.

This is what I came away from it with, TGWTDT is and adult movie with a capital “A” … and I do not mean for it’s violent & sexual content (we will get to that later).

It is a film for grown ups who like character exposition and plots you have to pay attention to. The first half of the film is dedicated to establishing who Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) & Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) are as people before their two paths cross. At first I thought this part of the movie to be a tad long, but the more it sat with me, the more I loved it!

When I see a movie and I think about it after the fact, well that is a good sign to me, it is better than it being disposable. 


Thus TGWTDT is a fascinating character study. My only quibble is, I wished Mikael Blomkvist was as interesting as Lisbeth Salander. Rooney Mara, OK, time to move past it, David Fincher has directed some of my most favorite in your face movies “Se7en” “Fight Club” & “The Social Network” …which, is one of the things I find quite interesting about TGWTDT -

The sex and violence are quite subdued…. Seriously lets site a couple of Jodie Foster films that illustrate intense quite well, Oscar winner “Silence of the Lambs” way more freaky violence wise, and “The Accused” a rape scene that had me so upset I wanted to lay it down on the next guy I saw on Hollywood Blvd. who even gave a woman that look.

Yeah, TGWTDT is quite tame by the abovementioned standards. So one of my fave directors, Fincher, has remained true to himself, yet oddly grown up. Did I like TGWTDT? Heck yeah! It was a really great film for adults…and in case I did not mention it Rooney Mara is amazing!

Note: Hey Mr. Fincher - you never disappoint, however, next time you want to be a big boy, a little up in people’s grill would be a nice addition.
 
http://www.dragontattoo.com/site/

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