Imagine my surprise when I learned that two sequels to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO have been completed and released in Sweden already. TATTOO, making its rounds here in the States and just opening in Atlanta last weekend, is an entertaining and fascinating thriller that feels very much like THE DAVINCI CODE one better.
News that director David Fincher has been attached to the US remake of TATTOO will certainly excite cineastes everywhere. The inspiration for the remake is an adult offering that demands a mature and edgy filmmaker’s involvement. It will help greatly that Fincher’s proven track record, which includes the modern classic FIGHT CLUB and the much softer and commercially crowd-pleasing BENJAMIN BUTTON, will help him deal with the conflicts in translating the sexy material for American audiences. TATTOO contains scenes (principally involving a wicked combination of sex and violence) that would not likely be found in something born in Hollywood.
Part one in the Millennium trilogy is based on the best-selling novels by Stieg Larsson, the controversial journalist and activist who died in 2004 of a heart-attack. Rumors concerned whether he was murdered, which makes the cinematic interest in his novels juicier. Larsson is likely to be read and on the tip of our tongues for years to come as the roll out of the Swedish films are followed with much fan-fare by US versions.
TATTOO introduces us to Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), the editor of Millennium magazine who, as the film opens, has just been convicted of a crime and faces jail time. Blomkvist may be innocent of his crime, involving libel of a corrupt industrialist. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander (a star-making role for Noomi Rapace), a tough tattooed rouge, follows Blomkvist for her latest client concluding, based on her research, that Blomkvist has been framed.
As Blomkvist waits to enter jail, apparently serving his sentence is delayed for some months, he is hired by an extremely rich businessman, Henrik Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who was presumed murdered some 40 years earlier. Vanger is a member of the powerful and possibly dangerous Vanger Group. Reluctantly, Blomkvist takes the job and dives into a mystery that involves NAZI ties and violence against women and could threaten to unravel the Vanger Group’s empire.
Sexy, violent, and thrilling TATTOO starts the trilogy with a bang. With some versions clocking in at 180 minutes, the film patiently shows us the investigation by Blomkvist, who is later joined by computer hacker Salander. The cut I watched was the 152 minute version and held my attention even as the investigation got tedious. Apparently true to the book that inspired it, TATTOO combines a methodical narrative with some thrilling touches that will please DAVINCI code fans and viewers seeking entertainment over intellectual stimulation. Of course, the movie is very smart even though the conclusion may be familiar to a fault.
But will a US version work? Certainly attaching Fincher is a move in the right direction. The look of TATTOO could be adopted directly into the Fincher method. His 2007 film ZODIAC has a similar feel and, of course, comparisons to his marvelous SE7EN will be made by most everyone. Fincher would likely make the movie even more gritty in visual scope but up the creepy factor. If anything, the turn in tone of TATTOO from procedural thriller to a more action one seemed a little abrupt with flashback resolves feeling rushed. Fincher may want to give us an earlier peak into the violent misogynistic world that Blomkvist investigated. But in order to do this, he’d have to stray very close to exceeding the R rating.
The interest in Swedish cinema by Hollywood is increasing with a remake of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN on the way. The US adaptation of that vampire opus, written and directed for American audiences by CLOVERFIELD director Matt Reeves, is due out in October and will be called LET ME IN. Exciting casting there includes Richard Jenkins (who most folks “discovered” in 2007’s THE VISITOR). But the success of these remakes will depend on keeping the core story elements, warts and all—American audiences will squirm and squirm.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is currently in limited release.
