George Ilutsik
Film Studies
Analyzing the Analyzer_W4
02/06/12
The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo
By David Fincher
Theme and directors intention
“Two people couldn’t be more different if they tried, but
when the patriarch (Christopher Plummer)
of a wealthy industrial family goes looking for answers to the apparent murder
of his niece decades ago these two strangers come together in more ways than
one”. - Hunter
“But for all the skill brought to bear on it, the film
offers no surprises in the way it's told (aside from a neatly altered ending)
and little new juice to what, for some, will be the third go-round with this
investigation of the many skeletons in the closet of a powerful Swedish
corporate family”. - McCarthy
“From him,
expectations are high for a transgressive take on the book's search for a
serial killer of women. From him, we get – what? – a faithful adaptation that
brings the dazzle but shortchanges on the daring”. - Travers
Separate elements and their relationship as a whole
“The remainder of the film is somewhat more conventional whether we’re
seeing a snowy drive up a tree-lined road or a fairly explicit sex scene, and
Fincher finds the beauty in it all”. - Hunter
“From the outset, it's unmistakably a Fincher film; the superlatively
sharp visuals, the immaculate design, the innate knack for melding sound and
music, the chill and menace evoked from both modern cities and open spaces, the
beautiful people marked by deep scars and flaws -- all feel part of his
habitual landscape”.
- McCarthy
“Fincher and cinematographer Jeff
Cronenweth capture the chill of Vanger's private island and the despicable
family tree of Nazis, killers and incestuous pervs”. – Travers
Objective evaluation of the
film
“Salander’s
job as a researcher who gets results through highly unconventional methods (ie
hacking) helps draw her in after Blomqvist discovers the information she
included in his own background check and hooks her with a simple offer.
(“I want
you to help me catch a killer of women.”)”
- Hunter
“Very quickly, we learn (or are reminded) that
seasoned journo Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel
Craig) has his reputation and bank account wiped out by
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losing a libel case brought by scammy big bucks
investor Wennerstrom; that Mikael has a long-term casual thing going with Erika
(Robin Wright), his
editor at the now-imperiled maverick journal Millennium and that, with the
inducement of a hefty payday and a promise of helping him nail Wennerstrom down
the road, he accepts a job from the Vanger family patriarch, Henrik (Christopher Plummer), to privately
investigate the disappearance, and presumed murder, of his beloved 16-year-old
niece Harriet way back in 1966”. -
McCarthy
“Mara is astonishing as Lisbeth Salander, the pierced,
bisexual, tattooed twentysomething hacker who teams up with journalist Mikael
Blomkvist (a curiously wan Daniel Craig) to unearth secrets in the family of
Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), an industrialist who thinks his
grandniece, Harriet, was murdered 40 years ago”. – Travers
Subjective evaluation of the film
“The film moves evenly between two story lines that intertwine like
urgent lovers with increasing frequency until they merge permanently”. - Hunter
“The film pushes through all these preliminaries, not with haste,
exactly, but in such a compressed way that there is little sense of lullingly
enveloping the viewer into the narrative web; it just rushes you into it, like
the fast train that shuttles the characters between Stockholm and snowy
Hedestad”. - McCarthy
“Editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
excel at crosscutting between Lisbeth and Mikael, separately investigating the
case with orgasmic relish. But when the two hook up in Mikael's cabin and
Lisbeth strips to jump his bones, the expected sparks – sexual and soulful –
never materialize”. – Travers
The films level of ambition
“But the novel’s weak main mystery is replicated for the film (and
actually worsened through recognizable casting), and when combined with an
ending that never ends the result is a good film that fails to achieve the
greatness it aspires towards. Still, “lesser Fincher” is a contradiction of
terms, and in his hands even an unsurprising remake demands to be seen and
savored”. - Hunter
“As the only intrigue and unanswered questions here involve Lisbeth
herself, Dragon Tattoo is too
neatly wrapped up, too fastidious to get under your skin and stay there”. McCarthey
“Fincher's Girl is gloriously rendered but too impersonal to leave a mark”. – Travers
Words you found interesting
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Mohawked: This is not actually a word. The word Mohawk does not have
this ‘ed’ enunciation. Thought
that was interesting that he would still put it in his review. - Hunter
Aplomb: Complete and confident composure or self-assurance. -
McCarthy
Thrumming: to insert short pieces of rope
yarn or spun yarn in (a piece of canvas) to make a rough surface or a mat which
can be wrapped about rigging to prevent chafing – Travers
Relationship to film
movements/genres/ relation to other filmmakers’ work
“From Alien 3
onward, Fincher has made films about people who’ve either chosen a solitary
existence or been forced into one by circumstance”. - Hunter
“Dedicated Fincher fans are likely to find this redo rather more
conventional and less disturbing than Seven,
Fight Club and Zodiac, all
of which end far less reassuringly”.
– McCarthy
“David Fincher, the director of a
handful of films I revere, from Fight
Club, Seven,
Panic
Room and Zodiac to last year's masterful The Social Network, is at the helm”. – Travers
Work Cited
Hunter, Rob. “The
Girl with the Dragon Tatoo suggests the term ‘Lesser Fincher’ is an oxymoron”
Rev. of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, dir, David Fincher. Reject Media 22 Dec. 2011
McCarthy, Todd. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Fil m
Review” Rev. of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, dir, David Fincher. The Hollywood Reporter 13 Dec. 2011
Travers, Peter. “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” Rev.
of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, dir. David Fincher. The Rolling Stone 22 Dec. 2011
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