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News of Hollywood's release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been met with groans in may quarters by those expecting yet another unnecessary, inferior version of an international film in the vain of Let Me In or Solaris. But what sets Dragon Tattoo apart is that, rather then existing simply to allow an English speaking audience to see the original film without having to bother reading subtitles, the franchise was made popular not by its 2009 Swedish film, but by Stieg Larsson's book released in 2008. So in this sense Dragon Tattoo is more of an alternative adaptation than a remake.
But in spite of this, the new American version fails to offer the story anything new. Stylistically and tonally it does not differ substantially from the Swedish version aside from feeling a little quicker-paced, and it is just as faithful to the plot. Daniel Craig plays the journalist protagonist Mikael Blomkvist with the same calmness and understatement as Michael Nyqvist did previously, whilst Rooney Mara plays star of the show Lisbeth Salander with a similar assured menace as Noomi Rapace did. The stylish opening sequence, featuring silver liquidy shapes resembling the main characters shirting and oozing to a modern take on Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song', offers early promise that director David Fincher (The Social Network, Fight Club) has stamped his own unique mark on the film, but this optimism soon subsides as the film lapses into predictability.
In truth, both film versions have suffered from a story that suits the form of the novel far more than that of the cinema. Its complicated plot, full of twists and perennial characters, needs to unravel slowly and gradually to be fully effective, and despite the film's two and a half hours running time it does not quite manage this. There are cinematic elements in the visually striking Lisbeth and the snowy Swedish setting, but these are downplayed as Fincher attempts to squeeze the plot in.
All this however does not prevent Dragon Tattoo from being an entertaining watch, and the safe hands of Fincher deliver the edginess of the narrative to create a perfectly adequate thriller. But if you've seen the original then it's hard to ignore the nagging feeling that this adaptation is an unnecessary work, with an almost lazy lack of originality.
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