Swede emotion: David Fincher hits the mark with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

While the Swedish filmic adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn’t really need remaking (it’s a terrific movie), perhaps no director is better suited to the task than David Fincher, who’s adroitly taken on violence and crime previously in films such as 1995’s Se7en and 1999’s Fight Club. And he lives up to the billing with this take on the book, which, while not necessarily an improvement on the Swedish version, is spectacular and has the imprint of his own signature.

The plot revolves around journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a business reporter who’s just been convicted of libel against business tycoon Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg). Immediately after his conviction, which is broadcast on TV news channels across the country, he gets a call from Frode (Steven Berkoff), the lawyer for industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who wants to hire Mikael to uncover who caused the disappearance of his niece Harriet under the guise of penning his memoir.  Though reluctant, Mikael agrees to work with Henrik, eventually bringing in socially awkward computer hacker Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) as his investigative assistant.

While Mikael is a sophisticated ladies man who’s been carrying on an affair with his editor (Robin Wright), Lisbeth is a waif-like bisexual who’s had a troubled past and is still recovering from being violently raped by the man the state appointed to be her guardian. And yet, the two like each other despite their differences and begin sleeping together as they work to find out what happened to Harriet while sharing a small apartment on Henrik’s estate.

Though Fincher takes a few liberties with Larsson’s novel, the omissions and changes don’t affect the overall story and help accelerate the action. In fact, some of the changes Fincher makes to the climactic torture scene effectively make an already discomforting scene even more gruesome and discomforting. And the fabulous soundtrack created by Atticus Ross and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (who provided the music for Fincher’s last film, The Social Network), is equally inspired and adds to the suspense. Larsson’s book is so naturally cinematic, it’d be hard to screw it up, but Fincher does the book justice and then some.