The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo (2011) review

I admittedly came to this movie with a little baggage. I saw the original film, so this movie wasn't going to escape immediate comparison. More than that I had been hurt  by a remake in the past. Death at a Funeral was a British comedy I enjoyed that had a limited release here in the US much like the original Tattoo. Three years later a remake came out starring Chris Rock which ruined the film by increasing the volume on everything. Subtlety of jokes, gestures, and reactions all became caricatures of their original version. It felt as if this that movie didn't think the audience would understand it any other way. I didn't want the same thing to happen with another film I enjoyed. So with that in mind let's go through this new film and see if I get hurt yet again.

Characters
Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist a disgraced journalist brought in to hopefully shed light on the disappearance of a girl 40 years ago. Craig plays Blomkvist very differently from Michael Nyqvist. I'm not just talking about how the actors portay the character with  Nyqvist's Blomkvist being a beaten man and Craig's Blomkvist seeming to carry this frustration from his legal problems. But the new film actually changes the motivation of the character. The original film had a connection between Blomkvist and the missing girl, while the new film has him be a stranger to the mystery. On top of that change, their is a point where I feel Craig's portrayal changes at one point. As I said his Blomkvist had this frustration, that with one more push and he would throw a punch at someone. Near the end new Blomkvist is being lead into what he knows is an unfavorable situation. And he doesn't try to escape or resist. That doesn't feel right for the character or for how the actor looks. Daniel Craig looks like a scrapper and him not fighting just doesn't seem right.

I was very impressed by Rooni Mara's performance of Lisbeth Salander. Even though the characters take some different actions I wasn't made to think of Noomi Rapace original performance. All credit for that goes to Mara who was working with a more handicapped role. In this movie they decided to drastically reduce the role of the titular character. In the original Salander keeps a fascination of Blomkvist work, eventually involving herself in the mystery. In this new version not only does she have to be brought in by Blomkvist, but she also isn't necessary for solving the mystery. There are other slight changes made to how the characters of Salander and Blomkvist interact but those are so minor compared to this change.

The Story
Davide Fincher did make a promise that he would not shy away from the more intense scenes and he came through. This is good because while those scenes may be hard to watch they are necessary to help present the theme and establish motivation. There were smaller changes made to script besides the character changes. Nothing to harm the story as a whole but I felt didn't hold as much weight as presented in the original. Going with the idea that how a movie is shot affects how a story is told I have to make comment on the look of the film. the sense of size seemed off. Rooms in this new film seemed so large while the island where the mystery took place seemed small. In the original film the reverse seemed true. It's something I probably wouldn't have noticed without viewing the original, but it was jarring enough for me to make mention.

Overall while this new film is not bad, the changes to the script hurts what where already good characters. Given the choice I would say watch the original which is readily available through multiple sources.