- Meet Dragan Armansky, the 56-year-old CEO and COO of Milton Security, an international company specializing in four areas:
- 1) identifying threats, 2) security systems, 3) bodyguards, and 4) privately investigating people.
- Now meet 24-year-old Lisbeth Salander, the best investigator Armansky's ever known.
- Salander drives him crazy and doesn't fit in at conservative Milton Securities.
- She looks like a teen, and has piercings and tattoos, including one of a wasp on her neck and a dragon on her shoulder.
- Holger Palmgren, a lawyer who helps kids with problems, convinced Armansky to hire her.
- She has zero social skills, but she gets results. So, she works freelance and makes her own rules.
- Today, Salander and Armansky are meeting with a lawyer named Dirch Frode, who hired Milton Security to investigate Mikael Blomkvist.
- Salander tells Frode that Blomkvist is 42 years old, is part-owner of Millennium, and has written two books on corrupt financiers.
- He's an excellent journalist who fights financial corruption.
- He has a fairly stable income, but will be hurting after paying all of his court fines. He seems completely honest, moral, and incorruptible.
- Salander tells Frode and Armansky that she thinks that Blomkvist was probably set up in the Wennerström affair. He wouldn't publish slanderous-type material unless he believed it was true.
- Frode asks Salander if she can investigate the Wennerström affair, and she says she can.
- Finishing up her summary, she tells Frode that Blomkvist was married to Monica Abrahamson in 1986, and got divorced from her in 1991.
- They have a daughter named Pernilla, who now lives with her mom.
- Blomkvist is a ladies' man, and is in a long-standing romantic relationship with the editor-in-chief of Millennium, Erika Berger.
- Berger is married to the artist Greger Beckman, who knows about the relationship and doesn't mind. But, it might have been a problem for Monica Abrahamson.
Friday, December 20 – Saturday, December 21
- Around 5pm, Blomkvist comes into Erika Berger's office at Millennium.
- They commiserate over the guilty verdict, and Blomkvist tries to convince Berger that she should fire him. His reputation as a journalist is shot right now, and he'll just be a liability to the magazine.
- He also needs some time off to collect himself since he feels terrible now.
- Finally, she gives in and agrees to temporarily fire him.
- They plan for her to spend the night at his place.
- Berger falls asleep around 2am and Blomkvist watches her, musing about their relationship.
- They've been together since they met in journalism school, twenty years ago.
- They are addicted to each other's love, and it's hurt some of their relationships, including Blomkvist's marriage.
- He feels very lucky that Greger Beckman doesn't mind their arrangement.
- It's 4am and Blomkvist can't sleep. He muses about Millennium now and eventually goes to the computer.
- The press release announcing his departure from Millennium is already posted on Aftonbladet.
- He and Erika drafted it together in the office.
- (Brief flashback)
- Berger is totally against Blomkvist leaving, and doesn't like putting out the press release.
- He promises her that it's temporary, and that one day he'll expose Wennerström for the corrupt financier that he is.
- For now, he needs to back off, for the sake of the magazine. Berger eventually goes along, though she doesn't quite buy it.
Monday, December 23 – Thursday, December 26
- Berger and Blomkvist spend the weekend together, making love and talking.
- On Monday afternoon, Blomkvist goes over to Millennium, which is closed for the holidays.
- The phone rings, and he finds himself talking to Dirch Frode. Frode represents Henrik Vanger, who wants to offer Blomkvist a job.
- Henrik used to be head of the Vanger family of industrial companies, owned by the Vanger family. Now Martin Vanger is the head.
- The once-thriving Vanger Corporation has experienced troubled waters over the past twenty-five years, but still wields tremendous power and influence.
- He can't imagine what kind of job Henrik wants to offer, but he agrees to at least think about a meeting.
- After the call, Blomkvist does some Internet research on Frode, Henrik, and Martin.
- He notices a tribute to Henrik, on his eightieth birthday, two years ago.
- (A-ha! Henrik is the unnamed man in the prologue. The Vanger family tree says he was born in 1920, so the novel must be set in 2002.)
- On Christmas Eve, Salander brings gifts to her 46-year-old mother in the nursing home.
- Her mom is having a hard day, and Salander has to help her take the ribbon off her presents.
- Her mom asks if Salander has seen her sister. Salander has not, and her sister hasn't visited her mother either. After a little while, Salander's mother calls Salander "Camilla," which is her sister's name.
- On Christmas Eve, Blomkvist spends some time with his ex-wife and his daughter Pernilla.
- Then he goes to dinner at his sister's. He calls Frode from there, and agrees to meet with Henrik.
- The day after Christmas, he takes the train to Hedestad to meet Frode, who drives him over the bridge to Hedeby Island, where the Vanger family lives.
- Blomkvist meets Henrik Vanger. Henrik wants Blomkvist to write a biography of the Vanger family.
- But that's not the real job – nope, the real job is for Blomkvist to find out which family member killed Henrik's grandniece, Harriet Vanger, over forty years ago.
- And who keeps sending Henrik flowers on his birthday….
What went wrong with 2011's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo?
David Fincher's film of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo wasn't the intended franchise starter. But why not?
This article contains spoilers for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
“What is hidden in the snow, comes forth in the thaw.”
The world met Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Stieg Larsson's Millenniumtrilogy, when The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was published in 2005. She only became more popular when Swedish production company Yellow Bird adapted the crime thriller and its two sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, for the screen in 2009.
Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth, a prodigious ward of the state who has poor social skills and a photographic memory, while Michael Nyqvist plays Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist who enlists her help in solving a cold case and later becomes involved in uncovering a government conspiracy in her past. The trilogy was well received, domestically and in limited release in English language markets the following year.
Around the same time, Sony optioned the books for what film fans have come to know as 'an American language remake'. Producer Scott Rudin developed the project and enlisted director David Fincher and writer Steven Zaillian to mount a new adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, with plans to adapt the other two books later.
The film stars Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig in the lead roles, and faithfully goes through the motions of the first story in the series. Blomkvist's reputation is in tatters after a very public, very expensive libel case, when he's invited by wealthy industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the disappearance of his daughter Harriet, 40 years prior. After finding that the Vangers themselves are the prime suspects, Blomkvist drafts the mysterious Lisbeth in to help uncover the truth.
It was well received by critics and it picked up a bunch of nominations during the 2012 awards season. But the planned sequels stalled repeatedly in the years after its release and eventually, Sony announced plans to reboot the franchise with an adaptation of David Lagencrantz's official sequel to Larsson's trilogy, The Girl With The Spider's Web, due in cinemas in October. So, what went wrong?
To be clear, Fincher's film isn't bad. We've previously looked at 'what went wrong' with other franchise non-starters like The Golden Compass, The Last Airbender and Green Lantern, and we weren't just bashing those films for the sake of it either. While The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is unquestionably a better film than any of those, we're interested in the reasons why it didn't connect as it needed to upon release, in order to persuade the studio to make the next two films.
And here, the main reason might be do with it being the right kind of film at the wrong time - a dark, transgressive grown-up movie, released at the most wonderful time of the year...
This article contains spoilers for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
“What is hidden in the snow, comes forth in the thaw.”
The world met Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Stieg Larsson's Millenniumtrilogy, when The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was published in 2005. She only became more popular when Swedish production company Yellow Bird adapted the crime thriller and its two sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, for the screen in 2009.
Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth, a prodigious ward of the state who has poor social skills and a photographic memory, while Michael Nyqvist plays Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist who enlists her help in solving a cold case and later becomes involved in uncovering a government conspiracy in her past. The trilogy was well received, domestically and in limited release in English language markets the following year.
Around the same time, Sony optioned the books for what film fans have come to know as 'an American language remake'. Producer Scott Rudin developed the project and enlisted director David Fincher and writer Steven Zaillian to mount a new adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, with plans to adapt the other two books later.
The film stars Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig in the lead roles, and faithfully goes through the motions of the first story in the series. Blomkvist's reputation is in tatters after a very public, very expensive libel case, when he's invited by wealthy industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the disappearance of his daughter Harriet, 40 years prior. After finding that the Vangers themselves are the prime suspects, Blomkvist drafts the mysterious Lisbeth in to help uncover the truth.
It was well received by critics and it picked up a bunch of nominations during the 2012 awards season. But the planned sequels stalled repeatedly in the years after its release and eventually, Sony announced plans to reboot the franchise with an adaptation of David Lagencrantz's official sequel to Larsson's trilogy, The Girl With The Spider's Web, due in cinemas in October. So, what went wrong?
To be clear, Fincher's film isn't bad. We've previously looked at 'what went wrong' with other franchise non-starters like The Golden Compass, The Last Airbender and Green Lantern, and we weren't just bashing those films for the sake of it either. While The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is unquestionably a better film than any of those, we're interested in the reasons why it didn't connect as it needed to upon release, in order to persuade the studio to make the next two films.
And here, the main reason might be do with it being the right kind of film at the wrong time - a dark, transgressive grown-up movie, released at the most wonderful time of the year...
The feel bad movie of Christmas
The marketing campaign for this one kicked off earlier than anticipated. A YouTube user in the Netherlands uploaded a pirated camcorder version of the (NSFW) red-band teaser trailer shown above, several days before its planned release in May 2011. Despite Sony's claims that they had nothing to do with the leak, it went viral and remained online for four days before being taken down, leading some to think that it was too good not to have been a viral marketing tactic for a film that concerned computer hacking.
The eye-catching key art and marketing went on like this in the run-up to the film's release in late December, touting “the feel bad movie of Christmas”. It was a cracking campaign and there's no faulting Sony's marketing bods for that, but the timing of the film definitely could probably have been better.
December 25th is a bigger day for cinemas in America than it is here in the UK and it's a big day for families looking for something to do together after Christmas presents and dinner are out of the way. That means there's a lot of competition for family friendly films, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is about as far from family friendly as you can get.
The Vanger family is described by their own patriarch Henrik as “the most detestable collection of people you will ever meet”: a moneyed bunch of thieves, bullies and literal Nazis who are prime targets in Larsson's takedown of monstrous privilege. Likewise, the book's sexual content, including its provocative rape scene and Lisbeth's subsequent violent revenge, were talking points about both the source material and the Swedish version, and this was echoed in the run-up to this film.
Without wishing to labour the point, you likely wouldn't want to see it with your family. While the marketing had made the dark and bleak tone of the film appeal to women and adults over 35, a lot of filmgoers in those demographics would have likely spent Christmas with relatives for whom this movie would be entirely unsuitable.
To its credit, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo had a very respectable opening weekend. It made $21 million in its first five days and arrived at number three in the Christmas US box office chart. It came ahead of several other more accessible new releases that week, including Steven Spielberg's festive offerings The Adventures Of Tintin (also starring Craig) and War Horse, but fell short of bigger draws Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in their second week. Crucially, it didn't pick up any extra steam going into the New Year either.
All scheduling mischief aside, it seems like the film was released close to the end of the year to qualify it for consideration at the Academy Awards, following the success of Fincher's previous film, The Social Network. If this was part of Sony's motive in scheduling the film, then it paid off during awards season, but it seems like a poor swap for the proper box office hit for grown-ups that this could have been at a different time of year.
The awards-friendly release date is one thing that undercut the film's subversive credentials - no amount of edginess can quite conceal those 'For Your Consideration' watermarks that they put on screeners for Academy voters. But outside of the way that the studio handled the film, it doesn't help that the story had been seen on screen before either.
The marketing campaign for this one kicked off earlier than anticipated. A YouTube user in the Netherlands uploaded a pirated camcorder version of the (NSFW) red-band teaser trailer shown above, several days before its planned release in May 2011. Despite Sony's claims that they had nothing to do with the leak, it went viral and remained online for four days before being taken down, leading some to think that it was too good not to have been a viral marketing tactic for a film that concerned computer hacking.
The eye-catching key art and marketing went on like this in the run-up to the film's release in late December, touting “the feel bad movie of Christmas”. It was a cracking campaign and there's no faulting Sony's marketing bods for that, but the timing of the film definitely could probably have been better.
December 25th is a bigger day for cinemas in America than it is here in the UK and it's a big day for families looking for something to do together after Christmas presents and dinner are out of the way. That means there's a lot of competition for family friendly films, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is about as far from family friendly as you can get.
The Vanger family is described by their own patriarch Henrik as “the most detestable collection of people you will ever meet”: a moneyed bunch of thieves, bullies and literal Nazis who are prime targets in Larsson's takedown of monstrous privilege. Likewise, the book's sexual content, including its provocative rape scene and Lisbeth's subsequent violent revenge, were talking points about both the source material and the Swedish version, and this was echoed in the run-up to this film.
Without wishing to labour the point, you likely wouldn't want to see it with your family. While the marketing had made the dark and bleak tone of the film appeal to women and adults over 35, a lot of filmgoers in those demographics would have likely spent Christmas with relatives for whom this movie would be entirely unsuitable.
To its credit, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo had a very respectable opening weekend. It made $21 million in its first five days and arrived at number three in the Christmas US box office chart. It came ahead of several other more accessible new releases that week, including Steven Spielberg's festive offerings The Adventures Of Tintin (also starring Craig) and War Horse, but fell short of bigger draws Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in their second week. Crucially, it didn't pick up any extra steam going into the New Year either.
All scheduling mischief aside, it seems like the film was released close to the end of the year to qualify it for consideration at the Academy Awards, following the success of Fincher's previous film, The Social Network. If this was part of Sony's motive in scheduling the film, then it paid off during awards season, but it seems like a poor swap for the proper box office hit for grown-ups that this could have been at a different time of year.
The awards-friendly release date is one thing that undercut the film's subversive credentials - no amount of edginess can quite conceal those 'For Your Consideration' watermarks that they put on screeners for Academy voters. But outside of the way that the studio handled the film, it doesn't help that the story had been seen on screen before either.
The name's Blomkvist, Mikael Blomkvist...
That said, the film itself is not without its problems, chief among which is the miscasting of one of the two leads. Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen were reportedly considered for the role of Blomkvist, but Daniel Craig was able to join the cast after Skyfall was delayed by MGM's financial troubles. Still, the shadow of James Bond looms over his performance.
This starts early and in earnest with the opening title sequence, whose nightmarish, tentacular animation, set to Karen O's cover of Immigrant Song, weirdly foreshadows the opening of Craig's next-but-one Bond outing, Spectre. It's a stylish start to the film that gets you in the wrong mood for a two-and-a-half-hour cold case procedural.
Craig certainly isn't playing the secret agent action man type here. He gained weight for the role, and he plays Blomkvist as a rumpled, idealistic but kind of hapless bloke. He's not tough and Lisbeth does all of the heavy lifting action-wise. But the film still makes him the lead, not Lisbeth, and that feels counter-intuitive to his studied performance.
It's also worth noting that in the books, Blomkvist is transparently an author insert character – like his character, Larsson was also a middle-aged political writer for a left-wing magazine. The casting of a 007 actor in this particular role only serves to accentuate the ways in which Blomkvist is idealised, particularly in his sexual relationships with his editor, Erika Berger (Robin Wright) and later with Lisbeth.
It's certainly not Craig's fault that the film can't help but evoke Bond tropes in the process. Even if you're trying really, really hard not to think about it, Fincher and Zaillian give us a scene where Blomkvist is captured in a bad guy's lair and forced to listen an honest-to-goodness bad guy monologue near the end. Whether it's an intentional subversion or not, Mara's excellent Lisbeth (who we'll get back to) feels sidelined by this approach, when the film badly needs her to be more central.
For comparison, Michael Nyqvist played Blomkvist in the Yellow Bird movies and followed a very conventional career trajectory for foreign breakout stars in Hollywood, showing up to play antagonists in John Wick and (funnily enough) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, up until he tragically passed away earlier this year. But Craig's problem here is that he is broadly as unconvincing stepping into these shoes, as Nyqvist is in a knockdown brawl with Tom Cruise.
That said, the film itself is not without its problems, chief among which is the miscasting of one of the two leads. Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen were reportedly considered for the role of Blomkvist, but Daniel Craig was able to join the cast after Skyfall was delayed by MGM's financial troubles. Still, the shadow of James Bond looms over his performance.
This starts early and in earnest with the opening title sequence, whose nightmarish, tentacular animation, set to Karen O's cover of Immigrant Song, weirdly foreshadows the opening of Craig's next-but-one Bond outing, Spectre. It's a stylish start to the film that gets you in the wrong mood for a two-and-a-half-hour cold case procedural.
Craig certainly isn't playing the secret agent action man type here. He gained weight for the role, and he plays Blomkvist as a rumpled, idealistic but kind of hapless bloke. He's not tough and Lisbeth does all of the heavy lifting action-wise. But the film still makes him the lead, not Lisbeth, and that feels counter-intuitive to his studied performance.
It's also worth noting that in the books, Blomkvist is transparently an author insert character – like his character, Larsson was also a middle-aged political writer for a left-wing magazine. The casting of a 007 actor in this particular role only serves to accentuate the ways in which Blomkvist is idealised, particularly in his sexual relationships with his editor, Erika Berger (Robin Wright) and later with Lisbeth.
It's certainly not Craig's fault that the film can't help but evoke Bond tropes in the process. Even if you're trying really, really hard not to think about it, Fincher and Zaillian give us a scene where Blomkvist is captured in a bad guy's lair and forced to listen an honest-to-goodness bad guy monologue near the end. Whether it's an intentional subversion or not, Mara's excellent Lisbeth (who we'll get back to) feels sidelined by this approach, when the film badly needs her to be more central.
For comparison, Michael Nyqvist played Blomkvist in the Yellow Bird movies and followed a very conventional career trajectory for foreign breakout stars in Hollywood, showing up to play antagonists in John Wick and (funnily enough) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, up until he tragically passed away earlier this year. But Craig's problem here is that he is broadly as unconvincing stepping into these shoes, as Nyqvist is in a knockdown brawl with Tom Cruise.
“What you're asking me to do is a waste of money.”
Inevitably, there's a contrast in budgets to consider as well. Niels Arden Oplev's film cost $13 million. For the money that the Hollywood version cost, you could have made seven of them. Not that we'd ever complain about studios spending money on films for adults, but there's little in the plot that needs to cost $90m.
Fincher made his trademark use of seamless visual effects to tell the story, as demonstrated in this astonishing featurette, but the cost was driven up by a 160 day shoot, necessitated by the number of scenes set at night. The result is the sort of visual excellence you expect from its director, but the investment may just have been a bit much to recoup for the studio, though the cost was ameliorated by product placement deals.
To use some advertising jargon, this winds up looking like story-selling rather than storytelling. Many reviewers at the time commented upon the prominence of McDonalds, Coca Cola and Apple in the film. Making a subtle point about Lisbeth's arrested development by having her buy a Happy Meal might have passed by unmentioned, if the point wasn't already made crystal clear in literally everything Mara says and does in the role. It's a concession to Hollywood financing that a cheaper film wouldn't have to make.
Studio representatives have said that the film was intended to gross around 10% more than it actually did, but it didn't stop Sony stumping up for development of the potential sequels afterwards. While we don't doubt Fincher et al's interest in the material, this feels more like a studio project than the director's other fare, and it's understandable that those on the creative side have since moved on.
Inevitably, there's a contrast in budgets to consider as well. Niels Arden Oplev's film cost $13 million. For the money that the Hollywood version cost, you could have made seven of them. Not that we'd ever complain about studios spending money on films for adults, but there's little in the plot that needs to cost $90m.
Fincher made his trademark use of seamless visual effects to tell the story, as demonstrated in this astonishing featurette, but the cost was driven up by a 160 day shoot, necessitated by the number of scenes set at night. The result is the sort of visual excellence you expect from its director, but the investment may just have been a bit much to recoup for the studio, though the cost was ameliorated by product placement deals.
To use some advertising jargon, this winds up looking like story-selling rather than storytelling. Many reviewers at the time commented upon the prominence of McDonalds, Coca Cola and Apple in the film. Making a subtle point about Lisbeth's arrested development by having her buy a Happy Meal might have passed by unmentioned, if the point wasn't already made crystal clear in literally everything Mara says and does in the role. It's a concession to Hollywood financing that a cheaper film wouldn't have to make.
Studio representatives have said that the film was intended to gross around 10% more than it actually did, but it didn't stop Sony stumping up for development of the potential sequels afterwards. While we don't doubt Fincher et al's interest in the material, this feels more like a studio project than the director's other fare, and it's understandable that those on the creative side have since moved on.
“She's different in every way.”
Quite by coincidence, in addition to Nyqvist's villainous turn in Mission: Impossible, Fincher's film also opened opposite Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, which starred Noomi Rapace in a prominent suporting role. If you credit such things, there's a kind of irony in both of their films coming ahead of Mara and Craig's film at the box office in the same week.
When the remake was first announced, there was an online campaign, championed by film critic Roger Ebert no less, to get Rapace to reprise her role. She declined, but that's not the only regard in which the pre-existence of another adaptation makes the Hollywoodization of the story more apparent by comparison.
The Yellow Bird films were each extended to 180 minutes for their television broadcast, and broadcast in six 90 minute instalments on Swedish public broadcaster SVT1. These adaptations easily transitioned to television, a medium in which cold case procedurals are commonplace, but even for a filmmaker like Fincher, the 2011 film has an uphill battle to make the story feel cinematic.
On the DVD commentary, Fincher and Zaillian talk about how they reluctantly structured the film around five acts, rather than the more conventional three act feature film structure, and directly compared it to TV cop dramas. At 158 minutes, Fincher's film is five minutes longer than the theatrical cut of Oplev's film and the only marked difference is the reinstatement of certain beats from Larsson's novel towards the end.
Outside of the densely plotted cold case, the film is extended at the front, by the separation of Lisbeth and Blomkvist and their respective screentime before they meet at the 76 minute mark, and at the back, by a rote epilogue that was more economically adapted first time around. It also unwisely restores the novel's final scene, in which Lisbeth goes to give Blomkvist a Christmas present but gets sad that he's with Erika and rides away on her motorbike instead. It's the sour note that caps an overlong final act and leaves a bad taste before the end.
The Swedish adaptation isn't much shorter, but it feels pared down to the bone. Meanwhile, the American version labours over details and meanders away from the central mystery. This may be a cultural difference, but fans will already know the story from either the page or the previous screen version.
The Millennium trilogy was as popular as anything available in print or in TV boxsets during the Scandi-noir trend that Larsson's success helped to kick off, so many of those who would be interested in the film, released so soon afterwards, probably knew the score by that point anyway. Ultimately, it just wasn't different enough.
Quite by coincidence, in addition to Nyqvist's villainous turn in Mission: Impossible, Fincher's film also opened opposite Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, which starred Noomi Rapace in a prominent suporting role. If you credit such things, there's a kind of irony in both of their films coming ahead of Mara and Craig's film at the box office in the same week.
When the remake was first announced, there was an online campaign, championed by film critic Roger Ebert no less, to get Rapace to reprise her role. She declined, but that's not the only regard in which the pre-existence of another adaptation makes the Hollywoodization of the story more apparent by comparison.
The Yellow Bird films were each extended to 180 minutes for their television broadcast, and broadcast in six 90 minute instalments on Swedish public broadcaster SVT1. These adaptations easily transitioned to television, a medium in which cold case procedurals are commonplace, but even for a filmmaker like Fincher, the 2011 film has an uphill battle to make the story feel cinematic.
On the DVD commentary, Fincher and Zaillian talk about how they reluctantly structured the film around five acts, rather than the more conventional three act feature film structure, and directly compared it to TV cop dramas. At 158 minutes, Fincher's film is five minutes longer than the theatrical cut of Oplev's film and the only marked difference is the reinstatement of certain beats from Larsson's novel towards the end.
Outside of the densely plotted cold case, the film is extended at the front, by the separation of Lisbeth and Blomkvist and their respective screentime before they meet at the 76 minute mark, and at the back, by a rote epilogue that was more economically adapted first time around. It also unwisely restores the novel's final scene, in which Lisbeth goes to give Blomkvist a Christmas present but gets sad that he's with Erika and rides away on her motorbike instead. It's the sour note that caps an overlong final act and leaves a bad taste before the end.
The Swedish adaptation isn't much shorter, but it feels pared down to the bone. Meanwhile, the American version labours over details and meanders away from the central mystery. This may be a cultural difference, but fans will already know the story from either the page or the previous screen version.
The Millennium trilogy was as popular as anything available in print or in TV boxsets during the Scandi-noir trend that Larsson's success helped to kick off, so many of those who would be interested in the film, released so soon afterwards, probably knew the score by that point anyway. Ultimately, it just wasn't different enough.
What went right?
As we've said, it's not a bad film. Lisbeth Salander has always been the main attraction, and Mara is extraordinary. It's a different interpretation from Rapace's, but they're both energetic, intelligent and compulsively watchable performances. In this case, wherever the film slows down, Mara animates the plodding procedural parts magnificently, and was deservedly nominated for Best Actress awards across the board.
It's mostly well cast throughout too, from old hands to up-and-comers. Plummer provides the only twinkle in a pitch black film and Wright reliably does a lot with the little the script has to offer, but there are also appearances from the likes of Donald Sumpter, Tony Way, David Dencik, Geraldine James, Goran Višnjić, Elodie Yung, Joel Kinnaman and the mighty Alan Dale. And in amongst that supporting cast, the standout turn is Stellan Skarsgård's odious, two-faced turn as Martin Vanger.
We've taken the piss out of the bit in the villain's lair, but as part of that monologue, invented for the film, the film uncovers a disturbing subtext that's not so prominent in other versions and Skarsgård knocks it out of the park. Henrik's nephew is revealed to be the serial killer Blomkvist is looking for, and throughout the climactic scenes, he gloats about the human condition at his bloodied captive.
“It's hard to believe that the fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain,” Martin snarls, revelling in the way in which sadistic criminals can prey upon moral people, all while Enya's Orinoco Flow blares in the background. The procedural aspect may not be cinematic, but the reveal is suitably skin-crawling and feels like pure Fincher. The original twist that Harriet (Joely Richardson) survived and escaped in secret is still a good one too, even if it plays out as part of the over-extended epilogue after Martin has been dispatched.
Finally, it's pleasing that they didn't transplant the action elsewhere, recognising that Stockholm is in the bones of this particular story. They could more easily have distinguished this version in that way, but not for the better. The frosty climate is complemented perfectly by the captivating score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and it all adds up to a film that's chilled to the touch.
As we've said, it's not a bad film. Lisbeth Salander has always been the main attraction, and Mara is extraordinary. It's a different interpretation from Rapace's, but they're both energetic, intelligent and compulsively watchable performances. In this case, wherever the film slows down, Mara animates the plodding procedural parts magnificently, and was deservedly nominated for Best Actress awards across the board.
It's mostly well cast throughout too, from old hands to up-and-comers. Plummer provides the only twinkle in a pitch black film and Wright reliably does a lot with the little the script has to offer, but there are also appearances from the likes of Donald Sumpter, Tony Way, David Dencik, Geraldine James, Goran Višnjić, Elodie Yung, Joel Kinnaman and the mighty Alan Dale. And in amongst that supporting cast, the standout turn is Stellan Skarsgård's odious, two-faced turn as Martin Vanger.
We've taken the piss out of the bit in the villain's lair, but as part of that monologue, invented for the film, the film uncovers a disturbing subtext that's not so prominent in other versions and Skarsgård knocks it out of the park. Henrik's nephew is revealed to be the serial killer Blomkvist is looking for, and throughout the climactic scenes, he gloats about the human condition at his bloodied captive.
“It's hard to believe that the fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain,” Martin snarls, revelling in the way in which sadistic criminals can prey upon moral people, all while Enya's Orinoco Flow blares in the background. The procedural aspect may not be cinematic, but the reveal is suitably skin-crawling and feels like pure Fincher. The original twist that Harriet (Joely Richardson) survived and escaped in secret is still a good one too, even if it plays out as part of the over-extended epilogue after Martin has been dispatched.
Finally, it's pleasing that they didn't transplant the action elsewhere, recognising that Stockholm is in the bones of this particular story. They could more easily have distinguished this version in that way, but not for the better. The frosty climate is complemented perfectly by the captivating score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and it all adds up to a film that's chilled to the touch.
Aftermath
After the film's release, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest were set to be filmed back-to-back, with the first sequel pencilled in for a 2013 release. Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker rewrote Zaillian's draft of the film, and Fincher and Mara were both happy with his reported departures from the novel, but the projected release date came and went with no signs of movement.
Around the time she was promoting Carol in 2015, Mara was still enthusiastic about reprising the role of Lisbeth, telling E! Online: "I'm doing it unless someone tells me that I'm not—and then I still might do it."
Sony have sent that message fairly definitively by skipping Larsson's two remaining books altogether and drafting Fede Alvarez and Steven Knight to adapt The Girl In The Spider's Web, starring Claire Foy as Lisbeth and Borg/McEnroe's Sverrir Gudnason. Keep an eye on how it does, because it's not coming out at Christmas, it has a director known for low-budget thrills (in Don't Breathe and his surprisingly good Evil Dead remake) and most importantly, it's based on a story that has never been adapted for the screen before.
Meanwhile, Fincher moved onto a more universally acclaimed adaptation in 2014's Gone Girl, on which he worked closely with original author Gillian Flynn, and looks set to throw his hat into the studio ring again for a sequel to World War Z. It will be interesting to see what unique perspective he intends to bring to that franchise that he didn't bring here.
His Girl With The Dragon Tattoo didn't do enough differently from the previous adaptation, except costing nearly $80m more to make. For all of its unflinching faithfulness to the text, it still plays like a 'one for them' movie than one for Fincher himself, and ideally, it would have been nice if the script were more polished, and the film itself a little rougher around the edges, rather than vice versa.
After the film's release, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest were set to be filmed back-to-back, with the first sequel pencilled in for a 2013 release. Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker rewrote Zaillian's draft of the film, and Fincher and Mara were both happy with his reported departures from the novel, but the projected release date came and went with no signs of movement.
Around the time she was promoting Carol in 2015, Mara was still enthusiastic about reprising the role of Lisbeth, telling E! Online: "I'm doing it unless someone tells me that I'm not—and then I still might do it."
Sony have sent that message fairly definitively by skipping Larsson's two remaining books altogether and drafting Fede Alvarez and Steven Knight to adapt The Girl In The Spider's Web, starring Claire Foy as Lisbeth and Borg/McEnroe's Sverrir Gudnason. Keep an eye on how it does, because it's not coming out at Christmas, it has a director known for low-budget thrills (in Don't Breathe and his surprisingly good Evil Dead remake) and most importantly, it's based on a story that has never been adapted for the screen before.
Meanwhile, Fincher moved onto a more universally acclaimed adaptation in 2014's Gone Girl, on which he worked closely with original author Gillian Flynn, and looks set to throw his hat into the studio ring again for a sequel to World War Z. It will be interesting to see what unique perspective he intends to bring to that franchise that he didn't bring here.
His Girl With The Dragon Tattoo didn't do enough differently from the previous adaptation, except costing nearly $80m more to make. For all of its unflinching faithfulness to the text, it still plays like a 'one for them' movie than one for Fincher himself, and ideally, it would have been nice if the script were more polished, and the film itself a little rougher around the edges, rather than vice versa.
Summary: Prologue
On his birthday, an eighty-year-old man receives an unidentifiable dried flower in the mail from an anonymous source. Disturbed despite the fact that he receives a similar gift each year, he contacts Detective Superintendent Morell to discuss the occurrence. After the phone call, he begins to weep.
Summary: Chapter 1
The chapter opens as Mikael Blomkvist, journalist and publisher of the political magazine Millennium, steps out to address reporters after being convicted for libel and the defamation of financier Hans-Erik Wennerström. Blomkvist, who owes his reputation to an exposé of a group of bank robbers called The Bear Gang, knows that the libel conviction will destroy his career and his credibility. After a minor confrontation with a journalistic rival, he escapes to a small café for lunch and thinks about the judgment. The heavy libel fine will cause him financial trouble and, additionally, he must endure three months in prison. Though he believes he can pay the fine himself, he remains troubled by the damage to Millennium’s reputation and the thought of losing his beloved apartment. Confused, he wonders where he went wrong and debates whether the information from his source, an old school friend Robert Lindberg, might be inaccurate after all.
Summary: Chapter 2
As Blomkvist deals with the fallout from the verdict, Dragan Armansky, the CEO of Milton Security, reflects on his subordinate, Lisbeth Salander. Though Milton Security provides high-end security for various clients, the company also operates a small private-investigation division. Salander, originally hired to do menial temp work, soon begins to work on cases, and she continually defies Armansky’s expectations, as well as his orders. Salander looks unusual, with clothes, piercings, and tattoos that seem out of place at the conservative security firm. Yet she proves her worth as the best researcher among his employees. Still, Armansky frequently finds himself bewildered by her coldness, rebelliousness, and her lack of emotional involvement with others. Nevertheless, he permits Salander to work for him as a freelancer in the private-investigation division. She performs research on the firm’s behalf for clients who request it, and on this particular day, Armansky reluctantly agrees to let one of these clients meet with Salander about her research.
In the meeting, the lawyer Dirch Frode questions Salander about a report he commissioned from her. The report in question concerns Mikael Blomkvist, and Salander offers a full summation of her research about Blomkvist’s love life, his failed marriage, and the properties he owns. To Armansky’s relief, Frode seems impressed by her acumen in spite of her confrontational manner and her unusual clothing. After the question-and-answer session, Salander makes an assessment of Blomkvist’s character and notes that he seems like an honest, scrupulous individual who would not readily publish false material. In a rare occurrence that surprises Armansky, she states her belief that Blomkvist seems to be the victim of a setup. In particular, she believes a source fed him false information or perhaps threatened his life. Startled by the revelation, Frode encourages her to investigate further and find out the truth.
Analysis
The opening chapters of the novel, which mainly focus on Blomkvist and his libel and defamation conviction, introduce us to Blomkvist’s character and establish the theme of corruption. Our first introduction to Blomkvist comes as he loses his trial, and we learn very quickly that Blomkvist made his reputation by exposing corruption. Despite his loss, he appears to be a very honest and principled journalist. Though Blomkvist handles matters with a calm pragmatism, his devastation over the loss of his reputation rather than the financial cost of the verdict indicates the value he places on his good name and the extent to which he trades on that reputation to do his job. Wennerström, on the other hand, seems extremely corrupt based on the account given by Blomkvist’s old friend. Consequently, there’s established a conflict between the moral and immoral, with Blomkvist and Wennerström representing the two sides.
By contrast, Lisbeth Salander’s unapologetic first appearance in the novel sets her up immediately as the novel’s most subversive and observant character, uniquely situated to analyze complex situations. Her dark clothes, piercings, and tattoos immediately indicate her control over her own body and mark her physically as a rebel, while her cold and withdrawn demeanor distance her emotionally from everyone she meets. Because of these traits, others regard her as unintelligent, but Salander manipulates the assumptions of others to her advantage. In her interactions with Armansky, particularly, Salander’s incredible intellectual knowledge and self-possession combine in a way that astonishes him and thus secures her a job that fulfills her needs perfectly. The working relationship that the two of them share does not require a change in Salander’s demeanor, but rather a shift in Armansky’s willingness to accept an unorthodox employee in his office. However, the interactions between Salander and Armansky also reveal Salander’s position as an unwilling object of erotic desire. Though Armansky feels affection for her, Salander immediately demonstrates her unwillingness to be sexualized in a way that does not suit her.
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