The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

After nearly two years since it was announced, David Fincher's adaptation of the best selling novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is finally here and it doesn't disappoint. But that's not surprising, given that at this point it's pretty much a given that if you put a murder mystery in the hands of Fincher, it will turn out well. The film starts off with a beautifully made title sequence that you have to see to truly grasp what is on screen. The sequence itself has no real connection to the film, but watching it onscreen accompanied by the "Immigrant Song" cover from the trailer is completely enthralling.

Now onto the film itself. As a fan of the Swedish adaptation two years ago, I will say that Fincher's version is in most ways simply a superior film. The acting was superb in the Swedish version, but having a $100 million budget gave Fincher the upper hand in almost every other category. As for the acting in Fincher's version, it was in no way bad, great even. Since the casting, or even before, people have questioned whether the role of Lisbeth Salander would be done justice by Rooney Mara, and whether she could take on the role as well as Noomi Rapace did two years ago in the Swedish adaptation. For what my word is worth, I think she did a wonderful job, just as good as Rapace. Mara's transformation to look the part show her dedication to the role and I wouldn't be surprised if she picked up a handful of awards in the coming months. Craig, as journalist Mikael Blomkvist, sheds his James Bond image and pulls off the character in a pretty faithful way to the books. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, most notably Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger and Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger.

The sets are perfectly recreated to how one would imagine them while reading the novel and when set to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score it creates the perfectly dreary mood that the story commands. My one complaint with the Swedish adaptation was that as faithful as it was, it felt rushed - I was worried that this version would be the same, but Fincher corrects the pacing and his version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is paced very smoothly and (as far as I can tell) no key parts were left out of the story in the transition from book to film.
As it has been widely reported, the ending is slightly changed in this film which, as someone who loves 100% faithful adaptations, didn't sit well with me at first but after seeing it, it's not a huge change, so much that it ruins the way things are resolved and has no real bearing on the subsequent sequels. At the end of the day, David Fincher provides a great murder mystery and one of, if not THE best film of the year.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is out now in the US and the film hits the UK on December 26th.