The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Remake - review

[JasonC]

Just got back from seeing THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. It is almost faithful to the book, with one small change (which isn't really necessary anyway) and one large one, in the matter of Harriet's identity. I will forgive the change however because it was filmed and made by Americans. I will say no more on the subject as that would count as a spoiler.

I cannot compare Lizbeth's rape in the US and Swedish versions because I watched the swedish one on Blu-Ray and was therefore able to fastforward through it. Fincher does not avoid it, although there is one moment when the screen goes black and I thought that we would come back when it was all done. But that was not the case. It was not made titillating in any way, at least in my opinion.

The film itself is set in sweden like the books and everyone - with the exception of Daniel Craig, who sticks to his normal british one - has a little accent.

Rooney Mara's Lizbeth is considerably closer to the literary Lizbeth than Noomi Rapace's was. Don't get me wrong, Rapace's Lizbeth is still incredible, but I have seen a review that described her as 'cast in iron', which I would agree with. Mara's Lizbeth is not, but does still manage to stand next to Rapace by projecting a shell that makes her look tough and capable, while still being emotionally fragile - much as Lizbeth was in the books.

The relationship between Lizbeth and Mikael is very slightly flavoured with the faintest hint of romance once it gets started, again no doubt for a US audience. It does not get in the way or change their attitudes toward each other but it is there.

All in all, I would recommend this without hesitation.

[SuaveStar]

You should have posted this in the members columns and reviews section.

Short, but not bad. My points, I would try and include a paragraph on the actual plot of the film, even though I've heard of the films, and started watching the Swedish original once, I know nothing about them. So a short synopsis would really be helpful for someone like me.

if you're going to talk about the changes, I would say go into more detail about the changes, as again, having never watched the original, I do not know the differences.

A good first review, but try and give more background detail on the film, and like I said, a short synopsis would be really helpful.

[JasonC]

I didn't know where to post it to be honest. I figured the movie section of the forums would be more appropriate.

I didn't really think about a synopsis because that wasn't the point of what I wrote. I was just putting down my first thoughts on the movie and I tried to make it as coherent as possible, rather than the stream of conciousness that came out at first. After I'd posted it, I thought of some other things I would have liked to have said. I didn't go into the details on the changes because unless you have read the books or seen the original movies, they won't mean anything to you. And if the reader has seen them or read the books, I didn't want to spoil it.

My advice on trying to watch the swedish movies? Go read the books first. I tried and failed to watch them, went and read the books, then went back and watched them without any trouble.