The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Director: David Fincher
Year Released: 2011
Rating: 2.5
A disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) gets hired by a rich patriarch (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young woman forty years ago; back in Stockholm, a wild child (Rooney Mara) - who is also a really shady private investigator - is on the loose and strapped for cash. Fincher and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth - who worked together on 2010's The Social Network - once again capture the beautiful icy bleakness of their surroundings (in the case, Stockholm) and craft a dynamic portrait of an avenging angel with a grudge against men everywhere (and in Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy, there are no shortage of scummy dudes), though the script is less-than-stellar, with the third act particularly fumbling and graceless (a chatty killer! a woman with a secret identity!). Mara's hellion is so dynamic literally everything else pales in comparison - she is the movie - although I'm pretty sure I dated a blonde version of this individual in college (a self-mutilating, tortured, techno-savvy bisexual ... yeah, that was batshit while it lasted).
