Movie Review - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011) ***1/2

    "The feel bad movie of Christmas" That's a tongue-in-cheek tagline used to describe the newest release from talented director David Fincher, known for some pretty dark movies such Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac. It is an understatement to say the least. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has a lot of good going for it, but geez, you feel like you want to take a shower after seeing it. It's a bit grimy. The movie is based on the first book of a 3-book series by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. The books were released posthumously and have gone on to be multimillion bestsellers. I have not read the books so I can't give an honest comparison but after seeing the first film I may get around to it. All 3 books have already been made into Swedish films which received primarily positive critical acclaim. I have not seen these foreign adaptations so I cannot compare this film with its predecessors either. It remains to be seen if the other two films are going to be made for the American audience but it appears the movie is going to do well so I fully expect the sequels to come here in the next couple of years.

      I'll give a fairly basic plot summary but I can't go into much detail. The movie is a mystery and it would be very easy to spill the beans on some of its secrets, all of which should be witnessed without spoilers. The movie stars Daniel Craig as a disgraced journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who is hired to investigate the 40-year old disappearance of a wealthy patriarchs grand-daughter. The girl, Harriet, disappeared from the family's island during a family function and has not been seen or heard from since. The grandfather, Henrik (Christopher Plummer), cannot let this go because every year he receives a gift, the same gift that his granddaughter gave him before her disappearance. Henrik is convinced that the person sending the gifts is responsible for the disappearance of Harriet. Most of the family members still live on the island and are an eclectic mix of people. One of the best lines of the movie is spoken by Henrik when he says, "But what you'll really be doing is investigating thieves, misers and bullies - the most detestable collection of people you will ever meet - my family."

     Mikael starts off investigating by himself but he is eventually joined in his investigation by Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), the title character. Lisbeth, at first glance, is someone a lot of people would take one look at and walk the other way. With multiple piercings, tattoos and an unkempt look she is ripe for prejudice. Lisbeth is actually a very smart investigator and computer hacker herself who uses her appearance as a defense mechanism due to a troubled past. She has lots of trust issues with males and this is only complicated when her current guardian abuses and rapes her. She overcomes these issues and is able to work with Mikael in the investigation and the two make a really good investigative team. They pour through documents and photos from the day Harriet disappeared and slowly they start to put the pieces together and see the big picture of what really happened to Harriet.

     I know that plot summary is pretty vague, but it really needs to be. It's too easy to spoil parts of this movie and I would hate to do that. There is a lot of good in this movie. The detective work by Mikael and Lisbeth is very intriguing as they weave their way through this complicated family and their pasts. Rooney Mara, who had a small part in Fincher's The Social Network last year, is really the highlight of this movie. Her role is so vulnerable and tough at the same time and Mara could very well earn herself a Best Actress nomination at this years Oscars. Craig can be a bit bland at times but I liked him here in this starring role as Mikael. Stellan Skarsgard and Robin Wright play supporting roles well also.  Fincher is one of my favorite directors and while I didn't like this film quite as much as I did some of his others, I could see a lot of the marks that make him a genius behind the camera. He just has a way of creating dark suspense that can unsettle you. The script by writing guru Steven Zaillian has some hiccups but overall I was really impressed. So why do I not have this movie rated higher? I wanted to go 4 stars on it and there is a large section of this movie that is worthy of that rating, even higher possibly. The problem is, this film clocks in at about 2 hours and 40 minutes. The bulk of the mystery is in the 2 hour middle portion of the film and that is top notch. But there is roughly 20 minutes at the start and 20 minutes at the end of this film that I mentally checked out. It takes a while to get going. Once the mystery is solved, there's a 20 minute epilogue that I know why it is in here, but it just didn't work for me. I thought it fell flat compared to the rest of the film. Perhaps it's just me but I almost wish it wasn't there. Also, without spoiling things, I thought part of this mystery was pretty easy to figure out. There's a specific reason why, but I don't want to go into that here as it would possibly spoil things. But there was just a decision made that I didn't like. Talk to me about it in person if you want to know what I'm talking about. These things added up and I wasn't able to go to that fourth star, but don't let that distract you. I really enjoyed this movie, and while it will not be for everyone due to some of the subject matter, it is worthy of the praise it has been receiving.