The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

[greyman24]

When I was in school, I posed the question to the teacher: "If Romeo and Juliet is set in Italy, why do the Montagues have a French name?"

The teacher's response, of course, was, "How do you know that 'Montague' is French?" I blinked. My still-developing brain couldn't yet form a response that would cite regional etymology. I couldn't speak to the soft "g" sound that pinpointed the name as Gallic. Instead, my response was, "Huh. Sounds French."

I was patted on my head and told to move along.

It was only years later that I would come to learn that it SOUNDED French because it IS French. The original story of Romeus Montecchi and his beloved Juliet Capuleta was a story that originated around the 12th century and was first written down by Tomasi Guardati in the 15th century (about 120 years before Will could have put pen to paper). It bounced across Europe before Shakespeare found an English, prose version translated from the French poem that was, itself, a translation of the original Italian.

His version still had the flavor of that French translation--which is how Montecchi became Montague.

What does this have to do with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Nothing (I hope).

Stieg Larssen's first novel is rich and layered, with mysteries overlapping mysteries. Perhaps the most deep and abiding mystery is about the titular character: a girl named Lisbeth Salander. And while the complex novel is action-packed, it is also stuffed to overflowing with story. This makes it slow to start and must have made it a bear to translate to film, let alone translating it to English (the book is Swedish).

The Swedish film made from the book is not bad, but a number of concessions were made that hurt the story overall. All throughout this first book, Salander is something of a cypher. We don't know her past, and she's incensed whenever anyone asks her about it. Her mother, a constant in her life, is unable to speak coherently to her due to mental instability/brain damage (we don't find out why exactly).

In, perhaps, the most questionable move of the movie, we are spoon-fed Salander's history and are shown a teary-eyed reunion with her mother at the end...a scene that comes off schmaltzy and not-at-all in the vein of the rest of the story.

Speaking of that "vibe", one of the problems that anyone would have in adapting the book is that, while touching on fantastical subjects (Nazis, hackers, murder and Swedes), it has a central thread of mundanity about it. Nothing that happens cannot be explained in a real-life way.

But that takes time, and slashing that down means you have to rely on some conceits. The biggest of these is the "super hacker" trap. How do you take a hunt for information that takes 100 pages in the book and compress it into a single scene? Well, have the super hacker do...hackery...stuff...and just sorta...find it.

At the end of the movie, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. The changes made characters that seemed real and nuanced suddenly become cheap and shallow. And here is when we come to the rub. In reading Entertainment Weekly, I saw a reference to the film based on the last of the Larssen novels (The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest). In the blurb it referred to the American "remake" of Dragon Tattoo.

Remake? Not adaptation? The thought that the American film might be based on the Swedish film makes me cringe. It means taking the storyline even a further step removed from the novel. It means not only will Montague be replacing Montecchi, but that the entire cast will now be robots from the future from rival robotics companies...actually, that's pretty good.

A remake of this adaptation will be even more dumbed down. David Fincher (director for the version to be released next year) is a great director and has done great things, but he's made mistakes before.

In any case, I won't be going out of my way to test whether this movie is more like the story Larssen wrote.

Who else has read the book? Who else is looking forward to the movie?

[schleicher12000]

The "remake" is simply the book turned into an 'merican movie for 'merican audiences who don't or won't sit through a subtitled foreign film. With the number of people state side who have read all three books (including myself), i doubt they would attempt to redo the Swedish film, cause, that would be stupid... of course this IS H'wood we are talking about...

[greyman24]

Yeah. Never underestimate Hollywood's ability to screw something up.

Did wonder about that. All the references I'm seeing through the movie sites/magazines keep referring to it as a "remake", but that could be the film-centric Hollywood press thinking that if there's already a movie, this new one has to be based on it.

[Larry King]

I picked up the movie and watched it, I found the character of Lisbeth to be off putting, I rate the movie as a middle of the road deal. Now this is after the brew haha over who should get the lead role. I hate when Hollywood remakes perfectly good movies. I don't think I will be watching any American adaptation of TGWTDT.

[Navarre]

I finally got to watch this movie today. I agree with Greyman's critique.

I have never read the books and I enjoyed the movie. I found the movie to be immersive and to contain characters that were more flawed then many protagonists in American films.

Personally, I liked that we were allowed to see Lisbeth somewhat from the outside. That is, I liked that they didn't spoon-feed us her history right away just to make sure we understood her.

Instead, we were introduced to a layered, rather disturbed, character and were left to our own devices to figure her out. That seemed realistic.

But then, near the end, they threw in a scene with her mother that didn't seem to fit. It was as if they had let me take this journey with Lisbeth and then insulted me by telling me things I had deduced in case I was too dense to get it.

I would have been happier never knowing for sure. After all, how well do we really ever know anyone.

But I liked the plot and the characters. I enjoyed the movie. At the end of it all, I guess that's what it's all about.

Also, I found this humorous piece online, satirzing the book:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/07/05/100705sh_shouts_ephron

You don't even have to know the characters or plot ot find it funny. All you need to know, really, is that the book is Swedish.

[Mokin]

I have read the books (all 3 of them) in the French version. Loved the 1st one (where they research what happened to the 16year old girl 40 years ago...). The other 2 not so much. They were fine, but had it been only the one book, I'd have preferred it.

I don't know how this was done in the US, but here, in Québec, they were released as 3 movies in the span of 2 years or so. from what I know, they were originally released as TV movies in Sweden.

As I said, interesting read, but I,d have stopped after book one (which is the first movie...).

And as an aside, titles in French were much better then the English titles. The second book was called "La fille qui rêvait d'un bidon d'essence et d'une allumette" (The Girl Who Dreamt of a Can of Gasoline and a Match). I think shortening it to the girl with a dragon tattoo is a bit reducing the movie to a very minor thing taken from a character (she does have a dragon tattoo on her back, but I don't think it's that important to the movie...).

[greyman24]

@Mokim: The first Swedish TV movie was lukewarm (IMHO), and I'm unsure if the movies that are in the works for the US are just a reworking of the Swedish script or if they're working off of a new adaptation. All 3 of them were released in the US at once directly to video with almost no fanfare.

The French title is much more evocative and lyrical, but seems a bit unwieldy. Also kind of gives away part of the plot, as opposed to the English version which can be taken literally or metaphorically.

@Navarre: Loved that Nora Ephron piece. Yeah. thinking back, the faults of the movie would have been much more acceptable if they hadn't tried to wrap the end up in a little bow like that.

[Navarre]

Now that the American version of this film has been released, anyone have any thoughts on it?

[greyman24]

Yeah. Curious to see what people might think. I probably won't be seeing this in the theater, but I'm curious if they used the book or the other movies as their template.

[Slappy]

Saw the movie last night with my wife.  Great film, excellent soundtrack, great cast.
Editing and directing also great all the way.  2hrs 40 min and it never got tired or long.
The opening credits put you in the right place for the rest of the movie.

5 Big sloppy, ketchup covered slices of Meatloaf!!

[SpiderLover]

I loved this movie and hated it. I had no idea what to expect, I just heard that it was a good movie. So for a first date I took a female to see this movie. Bad date movie, but entertaining nonetheless.

[Navarre]

I guess it depends on what you want with your date. It's definitely not bubblegum (or maybe that's popcorn) for the brain.

It's intense but worthy of discussion afterwards. At least it will give you more insight into your date's perceptions of such things than a romantic comedy.

On the other hand, the romantic comedy would teach you what you need to know to express your feelings in a moment of heartfelt confession in a public place with a clever gesture of sentimentality at that crucial moment when your girlfriend appears about to leave you.   

The opening credits to "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" freakin' blew me away. I almost bought another ticket just to see that video on the big screen again. Trent Reznor's influence was all over that video and it rocked.

[CatHalo]

I have not read the books, or seen the original movies. I intentionally avoided them til the Fincher version came out, so I could watch it independent of all expectation... And i loved it. It is incredibly grim, particularly everything Lisbeth goes through in the first half. But the story is solid, and it is executed with confidence by the cast and director.
The movie is long though, and the ending seems to take forever, but it's all worth it. It came out at the end of the year, and squeezed in to my Top Movies Of The Year list.
Check out my full review, along with many other reviews (most recently Jaws, Skyline and Green Lantern) over at my FaceySpace page. Also, while you're at it, maybe have a look at some of the questions (Poll Of The Week, trademark Major Spoilers) that are posted too. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cat-Halo-Movies/252936541426409?sk=wall