A Powerful Remake About Girl Power

Having just seen the Swedish original of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was almost determined not to like the Hollywood remake starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright. But the American version is a better movie in a lot of ways.

Director David Fincher is always superb at making tight and enticing movies. I've seen most of his previous productions and I do like his most recent ones such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. On The Girl movie, he's got such a challenging task given the huge popularity of both the Trilogy books and movies. But he did an excellent job and most professional film critics also like it.

I like the U.S. version better because, first and foremost, I'm not a huge foreign movie fan. I always feel that reading English subtitles without understanding the language in the movie is a big loss. This is particularly true with such a complicated murder plot. Under Fincher's lens, Helstad in Sweden is so frostily beautiful and serene as a backdrop for a crime scene. The pace of the movie is also much tighter and faster than the original version.

There is, of course, the comparison of the actors and a huge hoopla about Rooney Mara who plays the American version of Lisabeth Salender. Well, she's excellent all right, but I prefer her Swedish counterpart Noom Rapace who's cooler and even more void of emotions than Mara. Also, even with her shaved eyebrows, Mara is still too good-looking as the punk heroine Salender. The very significant rape and revenge scenes which take place at the probation officer's bedroom are much more powerful and chilling in the Swedish film than the American one. But Fincher deliberately leaves much of the imagination to the audience without as much graphic demonstration. Mara will probably win The Golden Globe Award but Noom Rapace should have won the Oscar.

Daniel Craig did a great job as journalist Mikael Blomkvist. But even when he looks tired and beaten up, he can't contain his sex appeal. No journalist in real life would ever have that body and look so good even under the down coat and jeans. Craig is one of those rare actors who looks good both half-naked and fully-clothed without his Bond tuxedo. Both Christopher Plummer and Robin Wright are strong in their respective roles but so were their Swedish counterparts.

With this U.S. version, you will be impressed by the stark minimalism of Martin's home; the frigid landscape of Sweden; and the mesmerizing musical score throughout the film. But, more importantly, you will have a very strong lasting impression of ultra feminism exhibited by the movie's protagonist Salender - if you wrong me, I will eat you alive and give you back 10 times what men gave women. To Salender, everything is proactive and taking charge, even in all the sex scenes. But that's why the ending of the Hollywood version is kind of disappointing. Salender is not supposed to care about any relationships with men at all, and yet in this movie, she does and that really makes her character a bit weaker than the Swedish original. I would be interested to know how the novel from the first Millennium Trilogy ends.