The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and collaborative filmmaking

(I realise ilovetotravelbytrain has posted a piece on this film already but I recently saw the film and given the fact I had my own strong views on it, I have posted my own article).

Before seeing David Fincher’s film version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I confess to having not read Stieg Larsson’s original novel or Neils Arden Oplev’s first film adaptation of the novel.

My interest in the film and novel were, in fact, virtually non-existent. The truth is, my new year’s celebrations were overly indulgent and I needed the always-enjoyable activity of a cinema visit to cheer myself up and return myself to the world of the living. These factors, combined with a friend working in a cinema that was only showing this film and his provision of a free ticket, meant that I reluctantly decided to see it.

The main reasons for a lack of interest in the film were the fact that I had seen people reading Larsson’s novel on public transport and was always struck by how irritating the title and the book's cover picture was. It made me think it focused on an annoyingly sassy, super streetwise, buffalo platform-boot wearing cyber-punk filled with meaningless and desensitizing action scenes, showcasing silly tribal tattoos and providing little or no depth or unsettling moments. I was wrong. The film does contain many unsettling and sexually violent moments that made for uncomfortable viewing within a public cinema. The anal rape scene, for instance, felt particularly awkward given the clientele of the cinema that day was made up mainly of old couples.

The one thing that gave me any hope prior to seeing the film was the fact that David Fincher was directing and, like in his brilliant earlier effort, The Social Network, Trent Reznor was providing the film’s score.

Dragon Tattoo’s central plot concerning the secrets, murders and disappearances within the Vanger family along with the corruption investigation of businessman Hans-Eric Wennerstrom, did not interest me greatly. However, it was not these narrative elements that provided the most intriguing aspects of the film. What generated the most emotional investment for me was the character of Lisbeth and her journey throughout the film.
The film seemed to be divided into two ‘parts’ with the first part focusing on Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) and the construction of her character via Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillian’s subtly placed exposition of her back-story and previous life. This is best exemplified in the first scene between Lisbeth and her new legal guardian in which the audience discover key information about Lisbeth’s character and the anguish and pain existing within her psyche from her years of abuse and isolation.
Included in this first part is Mikael’s (Daniel Craig) story and his involvement with the Vanger family. While it was interesting, this aspect of the film did not provide the same excitement and intrigue of Lisbeth’s narrative strand. Perhaps this factor could be seen as a negative in an overall view of the film.

The second ‘part’ of the film's two parts then focuses on Lisbeth and Mikael once they have met, how their relationship forms and how they tackle the Vanger family.

It is those scenes focusing on Lisbeth (below) that are the most captivating of the film. Lisbeth could quite easily have come across as a clichéd and corny character- the archetypal counter culture computer hacker with a distrust of authority and a predictable counter culture worldview. While Lisbeth does possess many of these traits, the character is believable, utterly sympathetic and never annoying.

Through Rooney Mara’s performance we see a girl filled with confusion, grief and anger. Lisbeth’s ghostly pale skin, compulsive and erratic eating habits and, at times, emaciated frame, serve to showcase a person whose inner demons are in a constant battle to spill over into the outside world. It is Lisbeth’s anger and Mara’s performance and demonstration of this anger that make Fincher’s Lisbeth the totally raw and thrilling character she is.

Technically and visually, Dragon Tattoo is both well executed and arresting. Fincher’s direction and cinematographer Jeff Croneweth’s photography create a Stockholm and a Sweden that feel perfectly appropriate and suited to the bleak and noir-ish nature of Stieg Larsson’s story. Stockholm is presented as wet, cold and grey and the stark brightness of the some of the film's office interiors serve only to heighten the sense of damp foreboding that is visible through the windows and into the outside world. In their visual collaboration and their use of such effective darkness, rain and shades of grey, Croneweth and Fincher evoke that other recent Scandanavian tale of mystery and murder, The Killing.

Trent Reznor’s (below) score provides another high point within the film. Those familiar with The Social Network will remember Reznor’s score from that film. What made that score so effective was that it felt so different. Unlike Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network contained no physical threat and no actual violence yet Reznor’s pulsating electronic score filled with deep bass and almost techno-like beats, lent that film a sense of menace and elevated an already powerful legal thriller into something that felt unique and more important.

In the case of The Social Network, Reznor’s efforts showed the importance of the score and just how vital it is as one of the elements contributing toward the overall film. In the case of Dragon Tattoo, Reznor’s score indicates that he could well join the list of auteur film composer’s such as Bernhard Herrmann, John Williams and Thomas Newman, whose styles are instantly recognisable when heard. Though the scores of The Social Network and Dragon Tattoo are different, there is certainly a clear link between them in terms of style. Dragon Tattoo’s score is toned down. Gone are the pulsing beats but included are the long, drawn out synth-bass keys at moments of emotional significance or tension. Though electronic Dragon Tattoo’s score is notable for it’s attempt to sound more melancholic and orchestral than The Social Network and containing musical styles more befitting to it’s subject matter.

As mentioned earlier in this piece, my interest in both Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network’s central plots are fairly minimal but it is simply through exceptional filmmaking that both films are so effective and have been amongst my favourite to be released at the cinema in the last 2-3 years. To me this shows that, more than any other medium, film’s strength and its ability to be successful rests in the power of the collaborative process. David Fincher’s direction, Trent Reznor’s music, the cast’s uniformly excellent acting and the cinematography of both films means that what could be potentially boring narrative premises and plots, are elevated to a captivating level by the skill of their collaborative execution. That alone is a triumph.