[6]

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara star in the second adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel about a journalist and a computer hacker who work to solve the mystery of a missing woman. Is there perhaps something wrong with the fact that The Social Network is more exciting than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? People looking at computer monitors and holding board meetings shouldn’t be more engaging than Nazis, steel dildos, and serial murder. But it is. There’s a moment near the end of this movie that really sums up my feelings about it (don’t worry, I’m not spoiling anything). Rooney Mara (as the title character) is walking toward someone, carrying a gun, and she’s prepared to use it. You fully expect her to use it. But then something else happens instead to resolve the issue, something convenient. Something less satisfying for her and the audience. And that’s kinda how the whole movie goes – misdirection to things less cool.

And I think it’s safe to say David Fincher is promising ‘cool’ with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because its main title sequence is something out of James Bond heaven — the most wicked title sequence you’ll see in a long, long time. But then Fincher spends the rest of the film’s two-hour, forty-minute running time under some odd (self-imposed?) restraint. Given how much I like some of Fincher’s other work, and as much as I respect screenwriter Steven Zaillian, I expected something much more satisfying — both emotionally and viscerally. The mystery plot is overly complicated and unrewarding — the revelations come as result of plot contrivance and convenience, not because of anything that can actually be solved or figured out. The film drops its pretenses in the third act — a welcome relief — and becomes slightly more exciting, but it’s almost too little too late. Some may admire Fincher’s subdued approach here (Zodiac bored me, too), but I felt the material begged for more sizzle and I know Fincher’s capable of delivering it in an artful way.

Academy Award: Best Film Editing

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress (Mara), Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing