The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – The Millennium Trilogy – Part 1 (2012)

Directed by: David Fincher | 156 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgård, Embeth Davidtz, Robin Wright, Christopher Plummer, Joel Kinnaman, Joely Richardson, Julian Sands, Goran Visnjic, Steven Berkoff, Geraldine James, Yorick van Wageningen, Matthew Wolf, Donald Sumpter

David Fincher’s choice to direct the first American part of the Millennium Trilogy is striking. Not only was there already an excellent Swedish film adaptation of the book (which makes an Americanization seem superfluous), but there is also a good chance that the director’s name would be lost in the realization of such an extensive project. But “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has turned out to be an excellent Fincher movie; faithful to the darker traits of its predecessors, respect for the book (which has already sold 65 million copies) and a memorable lead role for Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, the hacker who, along with Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), tries a 40-year-old murder case to solve.

The film is long, but in addition to directing and quick editing (similarities to Fincher’s previous film, ‘The Social Network’, are easy to draw), the film relies equally on a cast of veteran hands: Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård Robin Wright and Yorick van Wageningen are all doing their best.

The pace of the story is almost unprecedented, and it is thanks to cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (who almost always works with Fincher) and the electronic, hypnotic soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that the film is somewhat followable. This isn’t a fault of screenwriter Steven Zaillian, but Stieg Larsson’s abundant material is hard to pack into one film. It thus also arouses interest in the follow-up films: ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’ and ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest’.

The focus that Fincher and his followers put in the film on the bond between Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist works well, and although Daniel Craig sometimes looks a bit insecure in his role, the 2 hours and 38 minutes pass in a pleasant moment. ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is an excellent thriller.