The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Watched this last week. I haven’t read the novels but I’d seen the other film adaptations (watched them all in an afternoon, the characters and story were engaging, though the films themselves weren’t overly impressive). I was unimpressed with Fincher’s film.

Actually, I will go further than that to say that I think that this film illustrates that Fincher isn’t a terribly competent filmmaker. The actors did fine and the film is shot well enough but the decisions made seem unfocused. The story has social/political points that put it a little higher than a typical thriller but Fincher’s direction never rises close to that.

In fact, from the opening credits I was under the impression that this was Fincher’s attempt to make a James Bond movie. He even has Daniel Craig (who is a good enough actor and did a good enough job in the film). Fincher made a “sexy” James Bond film, which seems to subvert some of the commentary that makes the story worth paying attention to in the first place.

I don’t have a problem with remakes as a general rule. I don’t believe that there is any movie or story that can’t be remade. Fincher’s movie here, though, is an example of a completely unneccessary remake. It adds nothing and functions as little more than a mediocre thriller with better than average acting.