Lisbeth Salander

DVD of the Week: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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I loved the 2010 Swedish version (it was #8 on my list of the year’s best) and had very high hopes for this film by David Fincher (The Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club).  Those hopes have been fulfilled and Dragon Tattoo made it on my list of Best Movies of 2011.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the first part of journalist-turned-novelist Stieg Larsson’s Milenium trilogy.  The stories are centered on Larsson’s muckraker alter ego Mikael Blomkvist and the damaged and driven Goth hacker Lisbeth Salander.  Lisbeth is only 90 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like  relentlessness.  Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

In top rate performances, Daniel Craig plays Blomkvist and Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth. Lisbeth is the key to the movie, and Mara comes through with a compelling portrayal – stone faced until she explodes into a cyclone of wrath.  The other characters are played superbly by Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright and Stephen Berkoff.

Fincher is still operating at his best.   Remember – The Social Network is essentially about some annoying, immature geeks writing computer code and getting financing for a company – but Fincher made it rock!  Fight Club‘s desperate violence and Zodiac‘s whodunit relentlessness translated directly to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So there couldn’t be a better director for this project than Fincher.  I’m looking forward to his versions of the next two chapters in the saga.

Fincher shot the film in Sweden and had made the country look and feel unrelentingly frigid.

The score by Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is award-worthy and is a major contribution to the story.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Fincher keeps the thrill in “thriller”

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I loved last year’s Swedish version (it was #8 on my list of the year’s best) and had very high hopes for this film by David Fincher (The Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club).  Those hopes have been fulfilled.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the first part of journalist-turned-novelist Stieg Larsson’s Milenium trilogy.  The stories are centered on Larsson’s muckraker alter ego Mikael Blomkvist and the damaged and driven Goth hacker Lisbeth Salander.  Lisbeth is only 90 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like  relentlessness.  Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

In top rate performances, Daniel Craig plays Blomkvist and Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth. Lisbeth is the key to the movie, and Mara comes through with a compelling portrayal – stone faced until she explodes into a cyclone of wrath.  The other characters are played superbly by Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright and Stephen Berkoff.

Fincher is still operating at his best.   Remember – The Social Network is essentially about some annoying, immature geeks writing computer code and getting financing for a company – but Fincher made it rock!  Fight Club‘s desperate violence and Zodiac‘s whodunit relentlessness translated directly to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So there couldn’t be a better director for this project than Fincher.  I’m looking forward to his versions of the next two chapters in the saga.

Fincher shot the film in Sweden and had made the country look and feel unrelentingly frigid.

The score by Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is award worthy and is a major contribution to the story.

Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo teaser

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Another take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo releases on December 21.  It’s a gripping story and, boy, am I looking forward to the version by David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network).  Here’s the teaser, featuring a remix of Led Zep’s Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O.  Unfortunately, the teaser contains about 150 cuts in 100 seconds, very few of which show the stars, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.  But Sweden still looks gray and forbidding!

 

Movies to See Right Now – updated for this week

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Charles Ferguson’s brilliant documentary Inside Job may be the most important movie of the year. It is a harsh but fair explanation of the misdeeds that led to the recent near-collapse of the global financial system. Unexpectedly, the film begins in Iceland, setting the stage for the collapse and kicking off the easily understandable explanations of the various tricks and bamboozles that have hidden behind their own complexity.

Hereafter: For the first time, Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon, The Damned United) venture into the supernatural with the story of three people and their individual experiences with death. The most skeptical, nonspiritual viewer (me) finds this to be a compelling film.

The question of What Comes Next is unanswered, and less interesting than the film’s observations of what happens on this Earth to living humans. Eastwood’s genius is in delivering moments of complete truthfulness, one after the other, across a wide range of settings, from intimate human encounters to the big CGI-enhanced action sequence at the beginning of the film. Eastwood is an actor’s director, and star Matt Damon leads a set of excellent performances, especially by Bryce Dallas Howard, Frankie McLaren, Cecile de France and Richard Kind.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is an acceptable final chapter in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy and best as the showcase for Noomi Rapace’s final performance as Lisbeth Salander. If you’ve seen the first two movies, you should complete the trilogy by seeing this somewhat plodding film.  As with the first two films, Hornet’s Nest centers on Rapace’s Lisbeth, a tiny fury of a Goth hacker, damaged and driven. Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

The Social Network: The birth story of Facebook is a riveting tale of college sophomores that are brilliant, ambitious, immature, self-absorbed and disloyal – and about to become zillionaires. It’s a triumph for actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland and Solitary Man), director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing, Charlie Wilson’s War). It’s already on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Howl has a fine performance by James Franco, but is marred by an unsuccessful animation. Without strongly recommending it, I can say that The Town is a satisfying Hollywood thriller.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I have not yet seen Welcome to the Rileys, which is just opening.   This Sundance hit features James Gandolfini as a Midwestern plumbing contractor who visits New Orleans for a conference, meets teen runaway Kristin Stewart, and decides to stay.  I also haven’t seen Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story.  You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the Week is Toy Story 3, the best American studio film of the year. Last week’s choice was my favorite 2010 film, the indie Winter’s Bone.  For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Metropolis, M and The Set-Up on TCM.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is an acceptable final chapter in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy and best as the showcase for Noomi Rapace’s final performance as Lisbeth Salander.  If you’ve seen the first two movies, you should complete the trilogy by seeing this film.

Yet director Daniel Alfredson (who also directed the  second film, The Girl Who Played With Fire) lets the film plod to its climax.  Considering that Alfredson had a great page turner of a story and a singular performance from Rapace, it’s kind of amazing that he let his two movies drag.

This wasn’t a problem with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Opley.  That movie popped off the screen.  After Dragon Tattoo, I was worried that the Hollywood remakes would dumb down the story and soften Lisbeth.  But now, I’m really looking forward to the American versions directed by David Fincher, and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.  It’s easy to see how Fincher will improve the pacing of the second and third films in particular.

As with the first two films, Hornet’s Nest centers on Rapace’s Lisbeth, a tiny fury of a Goth hacker, damaged and driven.   Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.

The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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The Social Network tells us something about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – not about this year’s Swedish version, but about next year’s Hollywood version to be directed by David Fincher.

First, The Social Network shows that Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac)  is still operating at his best.   The Social Network is essentially about some annoying, immature geeks writing computer code and getting financing for a company – but Fincher makes it rock!  Fight Club and Zodiac are two of my favorite contemporary films, and Fight Club‘s desperate violence and Zodiac‘s whodunit relentlessness translate directly to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So there couldn’t be a better director for this project than Fincher.

Rooney Mara in The Social Network

Second, the success of the Stieg Larsson trilogy depends on the portrayal of Lisbeth Salander.  The Swedish version has been amazing because of the Danish actress Noomi Rapace’s  jawdropping Lisbeth.  But in Fincher’s  movies, Lisbeth Salander will be played by Rooney Mara.  The good news from The Social Network is that Mara nails her scenes as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s soon-to-be ex-girlfriend.  And we get a glimmer of the intensity that Mara will need for Lisbeth.  Plus Mara is used to working with Fincher, who is notorious for his scores of takes; reportedly, Fincher required over 90 takes for the opening scene between Mara and Jesse Eisenberg.

Hollywood's Lisbeth Salander

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Rooney Mara

Well, here’s a surprise.  In David Fincher’s upcoming film versions of the Stieg Larsson novels, Lisbeth Salander will be played by…Rooney Mara.   25-year-old Rooney Mara, sister of Kate, will play in Fincher’s The Social Network this October, so he must know something.  She also has a few credits in TV guest slots, plus a Nightmare on Elm Street movie.  She was also in Youth in Revolt, a nice little movie that I saw in January, but I have no memory of Rooney in it.

The entire success of the film trilogy depends on the portrayal of Lisbeth Salander. Is Rooney Mara a good choice?  Right now, I’ll withhold judgement.  It’s important to realize that Noomi Rapace, the actress who has so convincingly played Lisbeth in the Swedish versions, is not naturally a psycho hard ass – she undertook lots of preparation for the role, including six months of kick boxing AND a special diet AND the body piercings to harden herself for the role.

Noomi Rapace not playing Lisbeth Salander
Noomi and son

The Girl Who Played With Fire

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Lisbeth Salander locked and loaded

 

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden):  This is a highly entertaining follow-up to my personal favorite film of the year so far, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Again, the story revolves around Lisbeth Salander, the tiny woman with a lethal mix of damage and drive, played by the Swedish actress Noomi Rapace.  Rapace’s Lisbeth is a tiny fury of a Goth hacker.  At only 88 pounds, so she will lose a fistfight with a man; but she prevails with her smarts, resourcefulness and machine-like  relentlessness.  Lisbeth is always mad AND always gets even.  As I have written before, Lisbeth Salander is the best new crime drama character since Helen Mirren’s Inspector Jane Tennyson.

In The Girl Who Plays With Fire, Lisbeth is framed for a triple murder.  She must find The Real Killer while on the run, aided by a mostly independent investigation by her ally, journalist Mikael Blomkvist.  Their parallel investigations lead to a villain much closer to Lisbeth than one could imagine.  Plays with Fire has the structure of a detective procedural, but has the tone of a thriller.

Although I liked them both, I did prefer The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo to Plays With Fire.  The Wife and two friends who had all read the books, strongly preferred Played with Fire to Dragon Tattoo.  I don’t know whether this is a gender thing or whether people who know the story react to the movies differently.  I generally enjoy major plot twists more when I don’t see them coming, and I have certainly found some big surprises in both Dragon Tattoo and Plays With Fire.

Plays With Fire is the second part of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, to be followed in October by The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

Hollywood's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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Hollywood's Mikael Blomkvist

 

There’s some good news about the upcoming Hollywood versions of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy.  First, David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) will direct, and Fincher’s track record suggests that he is the perfect guy to pull this off.

Second, Hollywood is planning to make all three films (instead of just the first or compressing them into one movie).

Third, Entertainment Weekly reports that Daniel Craig will play Mikael Blomkvist.  If you’ve seen the gritty British crime drama Layer Cake, you know that Craig can play the smart and understated Blomkvist.

Still, the success of the project depends on who will play Lisbeth Salander – and we still don’t know.  My first choice is the Danish actress Noomi Rapace who has originated the role, and she speaks English well; but on the extra features of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo DVD, Rapace says that, after living with Lisbeth for 18 months of prep and filming, she is done with the character. Carey Mulligan has been quoted that it won’t be her, either. So we watch and wait.

Bella and Lisbeth – NPR's John Powers

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“Two Ladies:  Are You Team Bella, or Team Lisbeth?”  NPR’s Fresh Air’s John Powers has written a very insightful essay on this year’s two most popular – and contrasting – female role models – Bella of the Twilight series and Lisbeth of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy.  An excellent read.

Note to Patricia:   The only reason that I haven’t yet seen The Girl Who Played With Fire, is that I’m waiting for my wife to finish the book before we go; she assures me that we’ll make it to the theater this weekend.  I’m glad that you found Played With Fire gripping.