The English language adaptation of the first book from Stieg Larsson’s bestselling Millenium trilogy, which spawned three Swedish films, is a murder mystery filled with a group of highly reprehensible people. Mikael Blomkvist (Craig), a disgraced journalist, is hired to find a woman, Harriet Vanger, who has been missing for forty years. Assisted by a brilliant computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Mara), they uncover more about the case than anyone was counting on; ultimately connecting Harriet’s disappearance with a serial killer of women, and risking their lives at every turn.
Director David Fincher’s past as an iconic music video director - he directed some of Madonna’s best videos including the all time favourite, Express Yourself - is plainly evident here. The editing is timed perfectly with the music, and the title sequence is the kind of thing you’d expect from a Bond film; only edgier. It’s stylised and this only adds to the overall coolness that pervades the film. Style was obviously high on the list of priorities in producing this film; the editing is just one manifestation of that, while the soundtrack is another.
The soundtrack is what pushes this film from being a slightly above average thriller into something that is really worth seeing. Yes, it’s filmed beautifully - though it has to be said that the sheer amount of product placement is insanely distracting - and it’s cast with some really good actors, but the matching of the music with the images is really something special. It’s the dark, electronic take on the score that elevates the experience; it is icy cold, calculated and goes perfectly with Fincher’s blue toned, sterile imagery. The film as a whole is filled with cold characters, icy landscapes and a blue palette. Even its taglines - ‘Evil shall with evil be expelled’ and ‘What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw’ - are frigid, and not to mention some of the best in recent memory.
The one enraging point in the film, and it’s major, is that Salander is just a supporting character. The focus on Salander is actually the one area where the Swedish version beats the American one; which is superior in nearly every other aspect though the former is quite solid as well.
Having Blomkvist as the lead makes this thriller somewhat conventional; Daniel Craig’s portrayal of him is hardly more than a bespectacled, divorced Bond – highly entertaining but nothing that we haven’t seen before. Salander on the other hand is completely new. How many times have you seen an antisocial, sexually fluid, tattooed, pierced, mohawked, female hacker in a film? Never. She deserves, not only to be seen, but to be the uncontested lead of the film. Besides Rooney Mara does a smashing job as Salander.
The books describe Salander as a waifish woman who looks like a teenage boy. She projects a tough, antisocial appearance with her choice of clothing, hairstyle and makeup yet, despite her best efforts, she still looks vulnerable and is underestimated often. Mara completely nails this combination of vulnerability and toughness; she’s frail enough to believe that people would take advantage of her, yet strong enough that retaliation doesn’t seem like a laughable prospect. She is Salander.
When you have a star this great, why take the road well travelled? And this is where the film is a bit disappointing; it’s pretty badass yet has all the trappings of a regular thriller when it could have been so much more. Films like these don’t come round that often so it‘s unfortunate to see an opportunity watered down like this.
