10 CONCLUSIONS: GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

• Production year: 2011
• Countries: Rest of the world, USA
• Cert (UK): 18
• Runtime: 152 mins
• Directors: David Fincher, Niels Arden Oplev
• Cast: Christopher Plummer, Daniel Craig, Joely Richardson, Lena Endre, Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Peter Haber, Robin Wright, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Sven-Bertil Taube, Yorick van Wageningen

I finally found the patience to watch this very highly rated movie, and below are some of what I noticed. It's my opinion exclusively, so feel free to disagree. But then again, it's my blog... Kidding


1.

 Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara really brought to life Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander respectively. Amazing performance by the duo, and the rest of the cast too

2.

I know this because I'm probably one of the 500 Nigerians resident in Nigeria who have read Stieg Larsson's book of the same title. This should be number one, but I know I'd piss off a significant amount of my readership.

3. For the first time, I could really flow with the movie while picturing the book in my mind. It's amazing the amount of detail that is left out of movies made from books. It's especially harrowing if you have a vivid imagination, and you've brought the book to life by yourself already.

4. However, I do understand the filmmaker's position. It is nigh impossible to cram as much detail into a picture as you can into a book, 2 hours 38 minutes or not. In fact, over 5 hours of screen time will be needed to depict as much detail as the book. That said, there are also sequences that aid the writing of fiction that would never make sense in film. Hence, the wicked reshaping a book goes through to get on screen is understandable.

5.

Don't tell that to the writer though. He has created a movie in his head and written it in words, and now you tell him his movie wouldn't really work as a movie? That's gotta hurt the ego a bit. Just before I watched the movie, I had the privilege of reading Mario Puzo's Fools Die. In it, the moviemaker versus bookwriter divide is exemplified, a situation which helped me appreciate both sides of the argument. As an aside, Stieg Larsson doesn't have to worry about bruised egos - he's been dead for a while now. A great loss.

6.


 The first time I heard the name Daniel Craig was in Casino Royale. Some people still think he's not quite Bondish, though I argue that the previous smooth and suave Bonds would have met a timely death in any of those situations they are regularly thrust into. Daniel Craig exemplifies Bond, and as a friend said, "Daniel Craig is Ian Fleming's James Bond. That's a deviation, yes. The point I'm trying to make is that the man shows tremendous versatility in handling this role in this movie after being known as a ruthless Bond for a few years now. I do not know the roles he played before Bond, so I just may be staying the obvious. I've been similarly impressed with Lebouef too, making the transition from bright-eyed kid in Transformers to a suave operator in Wall Street 2.

7. Perhaps the most blatant rehashing of the book has to be the fact that Cecilia Vanger and Kalle Blomkvist had almost no relations in the movie. If you must know, Cecilia was given her best ever sex, in her 52 years, by Herr Blomkvist, not once, not twice. And even more sinister is the fact that Anita Vanger is portrayed to be the lost Harriet Vanger after all. Anita Vanger was indeed alive in the book, and the hacking of her phone, with Lisbeth's help sends Blomkvist out on a trail to Down Under (Australia) where it turns out Harriet is a successful business woman. But I imagine not doing it the movie's way would have added an extra 30 minutes.

8.

Don't you just want to do a babe like  Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) at some point in life? The miniature "accessories" on her, whilst not particularly wieldy (you might also have to squint real hard to see it at all), can sometimes be fun, not that I would know anyways.

9. Did they really have sex? How many times have you asked that question? Well, I can't be bothered to research if they did, but the sight of them added some needed jazz to the bleak snow of Hedestad

10. Wow! I made it to ten, and as a parting shot, whoever it was that said a picture is the equivalent of a thousand words must have been referring to people without imagination. I enjoyed reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo far more than I enjoyed watching it. I'm also quite sure you enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series far more than you enjoyed watching it, if you have done both. Here's one for the book! No moviemaker can ever bring to life those two books properly with the images the books have painted for your imagination to fathom already.

Keep it bookish.