The announcement that an English film adaptation of the acclaimed novel ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ was going to be made no less than 2 years after the Swedish version was initially met with much skepticism, as the books had already seen themselves done justice.

The view became almost unanimously positive when it was known that David Fincher (‘The Social Network’, ‘Seven’) would be behind the lens and he assured that he would be staying eerily faithful to the written work. If there were any doubters still left out there, you can rest assured knowing Fincher has created a brilliant take on the first story from the Millennium trilogy.

If you are unaware of the plot line, the film follows reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he is called upon by the very wealthy Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) who wishes for him to investigate the disappearance of his niece Harriet, something that happened over 40 years ago. Henrik is convinced she’s dead but is intent on learning of the truth to lay her memory to rest in ease. Mikael is assisted in his research by Lisbeth Salander (a career-defining performance from Rooney Mara), a young, dangerous but intelligent computer hacker. The story goes beyond this in terms of plot but to know any more would be a spoiler, and if you have read the book or seen the other films you will know there’s much more explored, especially in regards to Lisbeth’s life.
Improving on the Swedish films was always going to be a hard task, but somehow Fincher manages to do it, and for Mara to step out on her own in the highly coveted role of Lisbeth is astonishing as original ‘girl’ Noomi Rapace (who’s becoming a Hollywood star in her own right) embodied the character so well that she made it an almost impossible task to be topped. At the very least Mara is her equal.

The film is long and involved but never boring, and as to be expected with the novel’s content, it’s quite a brutal film to watch at times so don’t say you haven’t been warned. Engaging, intense, wonder fully atmospheric and with an opening credit sequence that needs to be seen to be believed (Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ has never sounded better), ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tat too’ isn’t a feel-good movie by any means, but it begs to be seen all the same.