Coluna Claquete - February, 3th 2012

Movie of the Week: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

When dealing with films, there are two situations where pessimism reigns. The first is the adaptation of a book to film, because there is always someone who says "the book was better." The second is when Hollywood decides to do a remake, and we always imagine being a weaker version. Well, at least this time, the two premises have been overcome, with the American version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

It is unlikely that the swedish writer and journalist Stieg Larssom imagined the success that his books would reach. In fact, he has not seen his books even being printed, as he died shortly after delivering the manuscripts for publication.

Influential journalist and political activist in his country, Larssom worked in the prominent news agency TT. Heading the magazine Expo, which he founded, he denounced fascist and racist organizations. It is not difficult to recognize his alter ego, Mikael Blomkvist, one of the protagonists of the trilogy Millennium, a great success in bookstores and for the second time taken to the movies.

Larssom surprised the world by presenting unkwom facts about his native Sweden, such as domestic violence, racism, corporate corruption and fascist influence in the country. These are surprising information for a country that always tops the list of the most advanced and civilized in the world.

It is this environment that we are introduced to the first part of the trilogy, when the journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) has received a conviction for having published an article against a powerful businessman, that was proved being false. The journalist, in fact, had fallen into a trap of believing the information given by a former colleague.

Mikael does not know, but he himself was the target of an undercover investigation, conducted by an information agency, and whose agent is a person very strange, the young Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Full of piercings, a huge dragon tattoo on her back, highly antisocial, Lisbeth is endowed with photographic memory, and an incredible skill as a hacker.

The objective of this research, done at the behest of powerful businessman Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), is define if Blomkvist is reliable for a very delicate task. When the two meet, Henrik reveals the biggest problem of his life: the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, fourty years before, during a family reunion. Family in which the entrepreneur has not the slightest appreciation, and what he believes that the problabe killer of the girl belongs.

Reluctantly, Mikael accepts the mission, and finds himself in the midst of a bewildering array of veiled informations, lies and where everyone has a bad side to hide. When the journalist receives an important tip of Lisbeth, who still access his personal computer, he decides to recruit her to help in investigations.

The research on Harriet shows to be linked to a series of bizarre murders, that happened years before the disappearance of the girl, always reaching women of Jewish names, and with extreme cruelty, imitating passages from the Bible.

As long as they find new evidences, the suspicions that the criminal is alive and very close become stronger day by day. The final confrontation will show that they are still far from solving the mystery of Harriet disapearence.

Although not reaching the minutious level of detail from Larssom's books, the film presents a complex script, with many characters, which require the viewer's attention since the first second.

As I'm a fan of the first hour of Larssom's books, and had watched the Swedish trilogy, I was aware of the differences and similarities between them. What I hate most in remakes of Hollywood is the loss of courage found in European productions, for fear the reaction of the conservative American society.

However, giving the direction to David Fincher certainly guaranteed not only to preserve the rawness of the original story, but also add some details that have passed almost unnoticed in the Swedish film. Knowing Fincher from "Seven," "Panic Room," "Fight Club" and "Social Network", anyone could expect something beyond the superficiality of Hollywood.

The most striking scenes of the film, the rape of the girl and her revenge had no half-words or shadow games. Unlike many movies, the climax takes place in a bright room.

The Swedish edition has served to jump Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace in the international market, he acting as the villain in "Mission: Impossible 4", and she co-starring "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."

In the American version, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara live the lead roles. Craig manages to pass a safe image, quite different from his James Bond, as the middle-aged journalist disenchanted with life, while Mara is very close to the strange figure of Larssom's pages.

Who shows a striking presence is veteran Christopher Plummer, who did Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" and steals every scene in which he appears.

A controversy that some viewers raised was about the film's title in Brazil, "Millennium - Os Homens Que N"ao Amavam as Mulheres", while in the United States was "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". My Swedish is a little rusty, but I found that "Män som hatar kvinnor ", title of the book and the Swedish film, is much closer to the brasilian name, and it has a more poetic tone.

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" is a thriller far above average, which requires much more attention of the viewer, and bring scenes, landscapes and the different situations that we hardly see on screen. I recommend.