David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the most well-made and dynamic neo-noir psychological crime thrillers of the 21st century. Even though it is based on the international bestseller psychological crime thriller novel of the same title by Swedish author Stieg Larsson, Fincher has made it in his own style. An investigative journalist of a reputed Swedish magazine loses a lawsuit against a corrupt Swedish businessman. Another renowned Swedish industrialist offers the journalist a large sum of money in return for solving the mystery of his niece’s disappearance forty years ago. When the journalist still refuses to take on this task despite the lucrative offer, the industrialist promises to reveal some crucial secret information about the corrupt businessman. The journalist finally agrees to undertake this mammoth task and ultimately solves the mystery. However, the young female assistant of the journalist, an asocial computer hacker with a giant dragon tattoo on her back, proves to be outstanding during the investigation process. Her outlook and actions make this film stylish, dynamic, yet incredibly thrilling.
The founder and a reputed investigative journalist of the Swedish magazine Millennium, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), loses a lawsuit against the corrupted businessman Hans-Erik Wennerstrom (Ulf Friberg). Another renowned Swedish industrialist, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), seeks to unravel the mystery of his sixteen-year-old niece Harriet’s (Joely Richardson) disappearance on Children’s Day in 1966. His lawyer, Frode, arranges for an asocial computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), to validate Mikael’s credibility. She gives positive feedback on Mikael to Henrik. Despite a large sum of money, Mikael initially does not agree to take on this task. However, he agrees to the new assignment when Henrik promises to disclose some important information about Wennerstrom to him. In the Vanger family compound, Blomkvist discovers a notebook containing a few unrelated names and numbers.
Because of Lisbeth’s mental instability, the state has appointed a legal guardian named Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen) for her. Bjurman is a sadist and tortures Lisbeth to the core. He beats her, forces her to perform fellatio, and rapes her annally. Lisbeth records the rape with a hidden camera in her bag. One day, she returns to his house uninformed and avenges the brutal torture on her. She ties his hands, rapes him with a dildo, and makes a tattoo – “I am a rapist pig” on his chest. She threatens him that she will make the recorded rape video viral if he does not send excellent certificates on her progress. she gives an ultimatum of one year to get rid of her state-authorized guardianship for the full control on her bank accounts and finances.
Mikael moves into a cottage on the Hedestad island. Henrik informs him that he had three brothers, Harald, Richard, and Gottfried, and all of them were members of the Swedish Nazi Party. Only Henrik and Harald are alive now. Harriet was Gottfried’s daughter. His son is Martin (Stellan Skarsgard), who runs Vanger Industries now. Harriet was close to Harald’s daughter Anita, and they used to visit the cottage often. Anita died of cancer twenty years ago. Blomkvist discovers five names along with numbers, which appear to be phone numbers, inside Harriet’s Bible. After watching a few photographs from the fateful day when Harriet disappeared, Mikael is quite sure that somebody present at that Children’s Day Parade ceremony must have killed her.
After watching the photographs carefully, Blomkvist discovers that a woman captured the photographs of the parade side of the street in September 1966. He reaches out to that woman and discovers a hazy picture of a man. Harriet must have seen somebody on that fateful day, which made her leave the parade ceremony early. When Lisbeth hacks Mikael’s computer, he reaches out to her and convinces her to join the investigation. She discovers that the names mentioned in Harriet’s diary are Jewish names. The women murdered between 1947 and 1967 were also Jewish. So, an intense sense of anti-semitism might be behind those murders. The identity of one woman can’t be established.
Inspector Morell finds out that the other woman mentioned in Harriet’s diary was also murdered in 1965. She was Gottfried’s secretary, and Gottfried also died shortly after the murder of his secretary in 1965. Mikael and Lisbeth suspect Harald to be the culprit, as the other two brothers, Richard and Gottfried, had died by the time Harriet disappeared. However, when Lisbeth investigates the accounts and receipts of Vanger Industries, she discovers that it was Martin and Gottfried who travelled to all the murder locations on the exact dates. So, there is no doubt now that Martin and his father, Gottfried, must have committed those murders.
Martin makes Blomkvist unconscious by applying gas in the cellar of his house and binds him. He confesses in front of Blomkvist that he and his father committed those murders from 1947 to 1967. However, he is unaware of Harriet’s disappearance. He did not kill Harriet. When Martin is about to kill Blomkvist, Lisbeth appears there, hits Martin with a golf club, and saves Blomkvist. While trying to flee, his car collides with a gas tank and explodes, killing him on the spot. Both Blomkvist and Lisbeth conclude that Harriet is alive and in hiding. They trace her in London. She reveals that Gottfried abused her sexually for a year when she was fourteen years old, and then Martin started doing the same. Her cousin Anita smuggled her out of Sweden to London. Anita and her husband died in a road accident, and Lisbeth has been using her identity since then.
Harriet returns to Sweden and reunites with Henrik. He shares the promised information about Wennerstrom with Blomkvist, but the information turns out to be outdated. Lisbeth hacks Wennerstrom’s bank accounts and discovers that he is siphoning money from bank accounts for some criminal activities. Blomkvist utilizes this secret information and writes a detailed report against Wennerstrom in his news magazine. However, Wennerstrom gets killed in a gang fight.
Screenwriter Steven Zaillian has done an outstanding job in converting Stieg Larsson’s 500-page novel into a 150-page screenplay to fit it into the projected runtime of Fincher’s film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Even though the setting of the screenplay is Swedish, Zaillian has made his own mark on the screenplay. He completed it in six months, and out of those six months, three months were devoted only for the analysis and research. Director David Fincher has also kept the setting of the film in Sweden. However, he has made it his own version, maintaining his signature dynamism and all the thrilling effects. Neither Zaillian nor Fincher has been diverted from the important fact that the novel has a strong misogynistic theme. So, the film carries an intense theme of torture and abuse of women.
Daniel Craig was the first choice to play journalist Mikael Blomkvist of Swedish magazine Millennium in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Despite multiple schedule conflicts, he was finally cast for the role. For portraying journalist Mikael Blomkvist, Craig had to gain bodyweight and adapt to a more neutral accent. He does a brilliant job of portraying a seasoned investigative journalist. Multiple actresses were considered for the role of Lisbeth Salander. Ultimately, Rooney Mara was selected for the role. For portraying an asocial computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, Mara got piercings done, her hair was dyed black, eyebrows were bleached white, and she had to take multiple off-beat haircuts. Despite Lisbeth’s vulnerabilities, Mara portrays the character more as a confident computer geek.
Jeff Cronenweth’s cinematography matches with Fincher’s vision of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and makes it look incredibly dynamic and thrilling. The film was mostly shot in a Swedish backdrop, and the chilling Swedish winter makes the film look gloomy and eerie, just like the subject of the film. Multiple times, Cronenweth plays with lights and shadows. However, he does not fill it with unnecessary lights to enhance the visual aesthetics of the film. His camera brilliantly captures the distinct personas of both Mikael and Lisbeth. Another important aspect of the film is Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall’s editing. The outstanding editing in the film complements Fincher’s vision and Cronenweth’s dynamic cinematography. Baxter and Wall brilliantly connect both the storylines, Mikael’s investigation and Bjurman’s torture of Lisbeth. Throughout the film, consecutive scenes were joined brilliantly. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s acoustic and electronic mixed music resonates with the thrilling, gloomy, and eerie atmosphere of the film. Creative director Tim Miller’s title sequence hints at the brutal torture and tremendous mental agony that Lisbeth’s vulnerable and unstable life goes through.
Film analysis and review on YouTube by Mainak Misra