The Girl with the Dragon tattoo is a story about a girl self segregated from mainstream society both outwardly with counter cultural hair, piercings, and tattoos and internally, avoiding substantial long term relationships as a victim of misogyny and rape. She's ultra intelligent, boasting a photographic memory, hacking mastery, and investigatory skills that not only rival the seeming protagonist but surpass him. On the surface, the films protagonist appears to be a neo-noir detective story about investigatie reporter Mikael blomkvist played by Daniel Craig that unfolds like a modern day game of "Clue" where the potential "who dunnit"'s are the members of a beyond dysfunctional wealthy Swedish family of industrialist Nazis. However, in the hands of David Fincher, it is a follow up to the social network and another tale of alienated genius driven by the desire to connect with the one person that provides a sense of normalcy. Played by Rooney Mara, Lisbeth Salander outwardly mutilates her skin with piercings and tattoos to cope and withdraw from her internal scars.
The film is a US studio remake of the 2 year old Swedish Indie adaptation of the novel by Stieg Larsson. Larsson himself witnessed a brutal rape at a young age, and most likely developed the intriguing character Lisbeth from an obsessive insight into how such brutallity could effect a woman. Despite critics who find the characterization of the books antagonists to be superficial and lacking depth, he is successful at inventing a unique ultra feminist revenge heroine and story rich with unpredictable plot twists and detail. Those are the successes that probably garnered Fincher's interest which he cultivated for his stripped down American version.
This is evidently an ideal playground for Fincher who's most significant contributions to Film have been heavy handed studies of the sociopathic such as Seven, Zodiac, Fight Club, and even the Social Network.
According to wikipedia: "Antisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV-TR), as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.""
Psychopathology as in Seven, Zodiac, and Fight club would be a subset of sociopathology. (Anti-Social Personality Disorder)
In the Social network, Zuckerberg's character whether in real life or not is portrayed as at least antisocial, obsessive-compulsive, and passive aggressive. The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo not only share similar non-psychopathic potentially borderline sociopathic misunderstood geniuses, but they also share most of the same talented ensemble crew.
Here I have listed the shared cast and Crew members along with selected previous works:
Screenplay- Steven Zaillian
Moneyball
American gangster
Gangs of new York
Hannibal
A Civil Action
Clear and present Danger
Schindler's List
Cinamatography- Jeff Cronenweth
Social Network
Fight Club
Music- Trent Reznor
Social network
And Atticus Ross also music
Social network
Book of eli
Editing- Kirk Baxter
Social Network
Curious Case of benjamin button
Zodiac
And Angus Wall also editing
Social network
Curious case of benjamin button
Zodiac
Panic room
Actress- Rooney Mara
That list alone should provide enough supportive assurance of the quality of this film. In each of those areas, this film is a master example. And even though i have yet to see the swedish version, i would wager that a Film class could devote a portion of its curriculum to comparing the swedish version to Fincher's as a comparitive study of narrative technique and mastery. For example Fincher and Cronenweth demonstrate a thorough mastery of cinamatorphic language in every frame from the shot to shot continuity of motion to the Choices of framing its characters. Whether they are coming or going, standing afar, obscured by objects, or the Camera is moving from low to high while rotating so that Mara's character becomes upside down and tinted red, they provide intense psychological narrative that tells us how to feel about the characters and how they might feel at each given moment. My initial favorite probably being the sequence introducing Mara's character.
Unlike most psychological mystery thrillers, this is not a game of cat and mouse, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a stripping away of layers until the characters nude wounds are left bare like artful tattoos.
As an entertaining movie I would not recommend this film if your IQ is not at least in the 100 and up range or else you might not keep up with the dizzying amount of information Fincher forces you to follow quickly. If you have read the book or seen the swedish version then the twists and turns probably won't surprise you and if you haven't studied film than you probably won't appreciate the amount of technique that bubbles below the surface of the complicated plot. If you are squeamish about graphic violence, then you probably wont enjoy the punches Fincher doesn't hold back from throwing. If you don't fit any of those requirements then you might at least appreciate the compelling performaces of its cast.
Particularly Rooney Mara. The product of New York Giants football royalty, she demonstrates an impressive amount of acting talent and social intelligence. If you don't remember her from the Social Network, she plays Erica Albright the girlfriend of Mark Zuckerberg played by Jessie Eisenberg and I will briefly tangent about the opening scene.
Written by Aaron Sorkin who won an Oscar for it, the Opening Scene of The Social Network introduces us to Mark Zuckerberg. The scene itself concisely conveys so much about character but requires so much subtlety that I consider it one of the better written singular scenes for two actors to exercise acute skill.
Personally I often tire of actors that claim to know more about acting because of whatever training or experience they possess but fail to recognize how difficult to achieve the degree of success that scene possesses. During the Renaissance period, an Italian painter by the name of Giotto di Bondone was commisioned by Pope Benedict to demonstrate his worthiness by painting a single drawing. He drew a single perfect circle with a pen dipped in red ink by fixing his arm firmly against his side to make a compass and turning the sheet of paper. Despite the courier thinking he was made a fool of, Giotto was chosen as his skill was recognized to greatly surpass the other painters (Giotto's Circle). I personally regard the opening scene of the Social network as Rooney Mara's Giotto circle.
Simple and subtle her character arcs from Jovial banter, to on her heels apologetic defense, to being offended, disgusted, angry, and then she breaks up with him in a snap decision while remaining cordial, until she finally loses control and aggressively puts him in his place. From her feigned attention to the tic of a single left eye lid to the pursing of lips that surpress her steaming lid about to blow, the subtle execution displays more skill than any screaming argument one might obviously point to. In a film where Eisenberg's protagonist intellectually steamrolls every character while barely allocating a portion of his genius selective attention, Mara's Erica Albright is the only one who can keep up with him. While he jumps around from one complex statement or witty insult to the next, she quickly processes and fences back with an equally witty response, ultimately defeating him. It is the most crucial scene of the film because it defines the broken connection that drives the character to create a multi-billion dollar social networking site. We have to believe that this girl is the one person he wants to be friends with. Not his business partner. This girl. (The Social Network's Opening Scene 1st half Written)
And if that is Mara's Giotto's circle, Her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander is her roman chapel. She's just as quick witted, her responses are short and sharp. She speaks with a decent scandinavian accent that is believable enough if not purposefully strange. She hides depths of emotion, is capable of ruthlessness, physical and emotional strength, while being completely fragile when she opens her walls. She performs a wide range of unimaginable feats of human action while winning over an audience to care about her. The result is an iconic performance and an unforgettable protagonist that Strengthens Fincher's vision of a wounded genius. I predict great things for Rooney Mara.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is an excellent film and will no doubt recieve several oscar nods. It's not necessarily the best film of 2011 but it was worth writing about. Also, I cant say that everyone will enjoy this film but hopefully some will appreciate it as much as I did.
A small window into Fincher's team through a behind the scenes about the post from The Social Network:
The Social Network Post part 1
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