The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Based on the book by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo follows disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he reluctantly agrees to help an aging industrialist (Christopher Plummer’s Henrik Vanger) solve the mystery of his dead niece – with Blomkvist’s efforts eventually aided by a brilliant yet asocial hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Much like its literary and cinematic predecessors, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo unfolds at a decidedly deliberate pace that does, at the outset, hold the viewer at arm’s length – with the less-than-engrossing atmosphere compounded by scripter Steven Zaillian’s needlessly reverent take on the source material (ie the emphasis on the minutia of Blomkvist’s investigation is, at times, oppressive). The movie’s consistently watchable feel, then, is due primarily to filmmaker David Fincher’s captivating directorial choices and the stellar work from the various performers, with, in terms of the latter, Mara’s turn as Larsson’s iconic creation certainly as effective (and affecting) as one might’ve hoped – although, by that same token, it does eventually become clear that Salander has been drained of some of her more overtly antisocial personality traits (ie Noomi Rapace remains the definitive Lisbeth Salander). There’s little doubt that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hits its stride as Blomkvist and Salander finally begin working together somewhere around the halfway mark, with the strength of their scenes together generally compensating for the almost excessive familiarity of the story (ie after a book and a movie, Dragon Tattoo fatigue can’t help but set in). The film’s palpably drawn-out running time and pervasive sense of unevenness – ie there’s quite a lull in the buildup to the climax – ultimately diminishes its overall impact, which does, in the final analysis, cement The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo‘s place as an entertaining yet somewhat disappointing effort from Fincher.

*** out of ****