Reviews, Interviews , News, Commentaries, My Top 5 Movies, Best-Of Lists, Filmmakers of Faith, Film ForumThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, based on the globally successful novel by Stieg Larsson and following a 2009 Swedish film adaptation, isn't the sort of Christmas season movie you'll want to enjoy with the whole family; nor is it a film that will in any way leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. It's a rather cold, brutal, punishing journey, and yet one with enough grandiose kinetic energy, artistry and inherent—albeit sometimes overstated—truth to make it a potentially worthwhile moviegoing experience for the discerning viewer.
Set in Sweden—cold, snowy, white Sweden—in both the present day and occasionally in flashbacks, Tattoo is essentially a murder mystery. Fresh off a potentially career-ending libel case, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by the wealthy patriarch of the Vanger dynasty, Henrik (Christopher Plummer), to investigate a 40-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance and presumed death of his young niece Harriet. Blomkvist is invited to the family island where the murder took place and where many members of the extended Vanger clan still reside. There, holed up in a creepy cabin with boxes of archival files, he tries to piece together, C.S.I.-style, the evidence in a seemingly hopeless cold case. Like a game of "townspeople go to sleep" Mafia, Blomkvist must try to discern which family members are innocent and which might be the killer, even while he himself is targeted to be the next victim.
Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist
But for all his investigative prowess, Blomkvist is soon upstaged when he is given an infinitely more talented research assistant, the mysterious and heavily pierced Lisbeth Salandar—the girl with the dragon tattoo who has a particularly keen interest in helping to find a brutal killer of women. Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) is master hacker with a goth wardrobe, a photographic memory, and a brilliant mind for doing just about anything it takes to defeat bad guys. Parentless, emotionless, quiet, broken, and yet full of pent-up rage that makes her a terrifying and unpredictable time bomb, Lisbeth makes for quite the unsettling blank slate character. What happened in her past? Aside from a hint that she was abused by her father, we do not know. What motivates her? Her single-minded passion to channel her rage into finding justice for Harriet gives us a clue. Harriet—who not coincidentally bears a striking resemblance to Lisbeth—was savagely raped and abused by devious men decades prior, something to which Lisbeth can all too painfully and recently relate.
Adapted for the English language version by screenwriter Steven Zallian (Schindler's List), Tattoo is a story and a film in part about abused women and the ways that they can fight back. Lisbeth is herself a victim—and in one particularly harrowing (and arguably unnecessarily graphic) sequence we see her being violently raped, followed shortly thereafter by her equally violent revenge on the rapist. This is the simple explanation for her intense desire to discover and destroy the killer of Harriet Vanger. And yet it's more complicated than that, because Lisbeth isn't just some righteous feminist superhero saving the day for abused women everywhere. She's a deeply flawed person motivated by a seeping resentment—justifiably, perhaps—of most men. Her relationship with Blomkvist softens her a little; he's a man she can trust, a man who doesn't objectify her. And yet she objectifies him, bedding him at her first opportunity. Perhaps this is because in Lisbeth's unfortunate experience, sex has always been about power, not love. Only after Lisbeth can dominate him sexually as men have so often dominated her, can she begin to trust him.
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Desley Boone
Watching a rape scene is important to understand a character? Clearly Mr Andersen, you have never been raped. I once attended a writers course where the tutor encouraged the class to watch a rape scene from a movie, half the female audience walked out, and later challenged the admin of the course as to why it was necessary to show this sort of thing. They were apalled and angry, and this wasn't a group of christian women. Anyone who has any genuine sensitivity to women, and in particular female victims of violent sexual crime will recognise that it ISN"T necessary to watch a rape scene to know that women are scarred by being raped. I find it apalling that a Christian magazine considers this offering to be 'a potentially worthwhile moviegoing experience' and even more offensive that a supposedly Christian male commenter finds it necessary to watch a rape scene in order to understand the character better. Whatever happened to 'don't be conformed to the world' (Romans 12)
Blair Brown
I must disagree with your contention that Lisbeth is "is about 80 percent vacuous and 20 percent vulnerable." Vicious, maybe.Vengeful,definitely,but whatever you may think of Lisbeth,however you may feel about her or her morals,she is ANYTHING but vacuous. Her silence and expressionless face speaks with far more volume than someone who speaks-or screams-loudly. When she does speak,it has the same effect of the thunder of an oncoming storm rolling through the hills. You have no choice but to listen. Sound familiar?
Bogzz Nartz
There is one ray of light in the movie--Craig's daughter in the movie became a Christian and it actually showed in her peaceful and contented demeanor. The rest of the movie is jut dark and disturbing. Don't get me wrong, artistically the movie is great. But from a philosophical-theological perspective it is bankrupt of any redemptive value.
F. Christopher Anderson
I have only read recently read the book and seen the film. I second the comment that I am proud of CT for the review. I started the book after Christmas because my daughter brought it home. I was immediately drawn in by the Agatha Christie like plotting and the P. D. James like 3D characters. I will admit it is harder to watch the rape scene than read it but it is important in order to understand Lisbeth. The book is better than the movie. It is a page turner. Theologically I view it through the way the Cappodocian Fathers understood the Trinity. Lisbeth is a broken, fallen human being that needs what Barth and the Bible termed reconciliation. That is the Trinity created us to be drawn into the relationships within the Godhead, relationships with our neighbors and our relationship to creation. Lisbeth is in need of this reconciliation and it breaks one's heart to see her difficulties with relationships.
Tim Lowe
I agree with Paul Peterson - I've seen all 3 of the Swedish films (with English dubbing) and found this to be true to form to those movies give-or-take. It is definitely not for the whole family, but for the discretionate viewer I believe it's well worth the time to watch. As posted by another there are some scenes that are perhaps too graphic, though I do wonder if the seriousness of the crime committed would be understood if it lacked the scene, NOTE: the similarity in scenes between the original Swedish and English versions is not lost on me. This earns its "R" rating though unlike some of the others it has a purpose. As dark as it is I believe there is a glimmer of hope for the humanity. Like this reviewer I question why the English version seems to need to strike out unusually hard at Bible believers and Bible verse interpretation. It does give you an understanding there are plenty out there who find the Bible to violent. In and of itself this may be a vehicle for witnessing truth