The time is once again here. This is my last post for the Sweden.se film blog. We’ll see when I return. I’ve looked over my notes for what to bring up in the final text and I decided not to do a “Best of” list or “Don’t Miss This In 2012″ list. I want to keep it easy breezy so instead I want to give you a little bullet point review of David Fincher’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” – The remake of the Swedish film that truly put Swedish cinema on the world map a couple of years ago (Of course Stieg Larsson’s book helped a bit too).
The 3 things I really liked about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
The story – Looking back on the Swedish one you quickly see that Fincher has chosen not to use as many strings as Niels Arden Oplev, the Swedish director. Instead he focuses more on key elements that makes the story push forward, never leaving you bored or out of place. It builds better character and storyline, which leads me to the next part.
Lisbeth Salander - here played by Rooney Mara – Damn does she nail it. Don’t get me wrong. Noomi Rapace did a great job giving cinema birth to this character but Rooney Mara just takes the role to another level. Of course a huge part of this is because of David Finchers directing but she’s truly the ace in Dragon Tattoo deck.
Stellan Skarsgård – This man, this legend, this Swedish teddy bear of an actor is so good in this film that you actually forget who played this character in the original. Skarsgård is on a great roll right now. This year he was in both Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and in Hollywood blockbuster Thor. Next year you’ll find him in one of the biggest movies of 2012, The Avengers, with no other than Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo and a guy named Robert Downey Jr, you might have heard of him?
The 3 things I didn’t like about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Deja vu – Even if I think this time around the film is generally better crafted, better looking and gives a harder punch, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve already seen this before. If you’ve seen the first one you don’t NEED to see this one.
The music – Trent Reznor is doing just fantastic film scores these days. Most recently he went home with an Oscar for his score in The Social Network. Here his music takes the back seat and just kind of goes for the ride (not counting the trailer or opening credits). Never really pushing forward. Autopilot is the best word for it and that’s too bad.
Joel Kinnaman in a scene from The Killing.
Joel Kinnaman – Swedish actor Kinnaman is getting more and more doors open for him Internationally. He broke through here in Sweden with Easy Money (Snabba Cash) and is now doing great in America with the TV-show The Killing. In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo he pops up in the beginning of the film, in a none speaking part. That’s fine I’m thinking. He’ll be back later for some real acting. Then towards the end he comes back, only to say one line of dialog like “you’ve got a call”. I mean come on!
I understand that just being involved in this project is a great thing and to act, even for those 3,5 seconds, with Robin Wright and Daniel Craig is something you kill family members for. But when the part could just as easily be played by a sock puppet you might want to leave that family member alive (depending on what kind of present they gave you for Christmas of course).
On that note I want to wish everybody a late Merry Christmas and a very safe and happy New Years!
Thank you for reading.
