Is It Worth Seeing?

This is my review of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011). If you didn’t read my intro post, here is an overview. I will review the film based on three areas: Construction, Presentation, and Pathos. For more info I would suggest going to the “What is all this?” post. 

Adapted from Author Stieg Larson’s spellbinding novel of the same name, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is an expertly woven tale of murder, sex, religion, corporate intrigue, cyber crime, and women’s rights. Having read the books I will say it is a very good adaptation, with a few liberties taken but none that where offensive in my opinion. But this had nothing to do with my review. I plan to review it as just the film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Construction: 4.5 out of 5

As expected from a film by David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is an incredibly well made film. Lighting and Set Design where two things that really stood out to me. Both added to the incredible sense of realism that the film carried. 

Presentation: 4 out of 5

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has incredibly fast pacing. In fact it was slightly off putting in the beginning of the film. I felt like the only way I was able to keep up was because I had read the original novel. One does get used to the pacing, and once all the elements are introduced the rest of the film flies by. A lot of the time scenes would pass by with little to no transition. Often times they would switch between the perspectives of the films two protagonists, but when they didn’t it just left me slightly confused. Overall the cast was very strong. Many Swedish actors lent again to the sense of realism. Daniel Craig seemed somewhat out of place, mainly due to the fact that he didn’t really take on a Swedish accent. Rooney Mara, however, was the star of the show. Her portrayal of the disturbed and brilliant computer hacker Lisbeth Salander left me slack-jawed at times. If there is any reason to see this film, see it for her performance.

Pathos: 5 out of 5 

Films don’t get much more  emotionally siring as this. I’m not going to lie, there are some brutal sequences in the film that depict rape and torture. But this does lend itself to the unforgiving sense of realism the film has. Overall, the film is an expertly crafted murder mystery with women’s rights undertones worked in. I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this film.

Overall Score: 4.5 out of 5, a “Must See”.