After discovering Lisbeth Salander for the first time, I was hooked. I first saw the Swedish version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” on Netflix streaming video. It was in Swedish with English subcaptions, but that didn’t bother me one bit. I went on to read Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, which included “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.” Read the first chapter of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” here. I follwed up each book with the Swedish version of the movie. I loved all three of them. I only wish that the last movie was split into two movies because so many important details were left out.
Then, I heard that there would be a U.S. version of the movie. I was excited when I heard this, but then I was afraid that they would ruin it. The U.S. version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was released on December 20, 2011 in North America. I never did see the movie at the theater. I figured I’d wait for it to come out on DVD. It was released today on DVD and Blu-ray.
The English-language film of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is the first one of the trilogy by Columbia Pictures. It is directed by David Fincher, screenplay written by Steven Zaillian, and stars Daniel Craig (as Mikael Blomkvist), Rooney Mara (as Lisbeth Salander), and Christopher Plummer (as Swedish magnate, Henrik Vanger).
This is a story of a man’s mission to find out what has happened to a girl who has been missing for 40 years, and who may have been murdered. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including one for Rooney Mara for Best Actress, and won one for Best Achievement in Film Editing.
From what I’ve read, David Fincher’s version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is just as good, if not better, than the Swedish original. This movie is just as dark and twisted as the Swedish version, which is exactly what the fans want. David Fincher stays true to Stieg Larsson’s novel, which is what is most important to me. This movie is in my Netflix queue, but it looks like there is a long wait.
If you have not read the book or seen the Swedish version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, be prepared for some really disturbing content. I suggest that you first read the books and/or watch the Swedish films first.
Editorial Review (Amazon.com):
A murder mystery rife with suspense, scandal, sexual abuse, and some supremely intriguing characters, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an excellently crafted film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s equally fascinating book of the same name. Larsson’s book was also the basis of a 2009 Swedish film (also with the same title), and while the Swedish film was good, this American version is far superior, thanks to fantastic cinematography and livelier pacing that results in a constant, electric tension that drives every second of the movie. The breathtaking footage of a snowy, remote island in Sweden thoroughly exudes bitter cold, and the attention to the smallest details, like the whistling of the wind through a door left ajar, makes the hairs on the back of viewers’ necks absolutely prickle. Like the book, the film is long (158 minutes), there’s an abundance of dialogue that is never awkward and always efficient, and there are plenty of false endings. The suspense and the intricacy of the mystery are stellar, and even viewers who know the story well will find themselves sucked into the riddle being investigated by journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig). The casting is great, as are the performances of all the key actors, but by far the best thing about this film is Rooney Mara, who is utterly believable as the incredibly strong, extremely disturbed Lisbeth Salander, Blomkvist’s unlikely assistant. Mara’s performance is chillingly real and completely riveting. Yorick van Wageningen is perfectly despicable as Nils Bjurman (though his scene with Salander is sure to prove highly disturbing to some viewers), Christopher Plummer is an effective Henrik Vanger, and Stellen Skarsgård is eerily frightening as Martin Vanger. Viewers can only hope that director David Fincher, screenplay writer Steven Zaillian, and actors Craig and Mara will continue their collaboration to produce films based on the final two books of Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. –Tami Horiuchi
The U.S. version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was released on December 20, 2011 in North America. It was released today on DVD and Blu-ray.
Sequels:
The sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, may be filmed back-to-back, with a late 2013 release. Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig are contracted for the second and third films. It is unclear whether David Fincher will return to direct the sequels. At the 84th Academy Awards, Mara stated that filming for the sequel would begin in the fall
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