Hey guys, people know me as TheCinemaChick and I’m perfectly fine with that. I’m your faceless mystery girl who checks out movies and reports them to you. Now, it’s currently Thursday, but my internet is down so there’s a good possibility you folks won’t be seeing this until Friday, so I do apologize. You’re probably thinking I could have omitted all that info, but I like to be open and honest with you.
Because I care about you.
Now, tonight’s feature is the much talked about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It’s based off a novel by Steig Larsson. I haven’t read it through yet, but it is currently in my possession and I do plan to read it. As you know, I’m kind of in to adaptations. This movie has been much hyped for a while now and it was on my list of things I really wanted to see. However, this movie comes with a warning.
If you’re offended by drinking, smoking, cursing, violence, murder, rape, sodomy, incest, lesbians, oral rape, tattoos, piercings or nudity, then stop reading and skip the movie. Yes, all of those above mentioned things come into play. I won’t say how little or how much because I’m not entirely sure myself. I will say this: the rape scenes are graphic. It was nowhere near as bad as Straw Dogs, but still…it’s rather frightening to watch. For me, it’s a moment where I have to look away or grab onto someone’s hand. This time, I had Butterfly and Just Joe, who hasn’t been seen lately. Well, life is busy people. I can’t expect people to always be free when I am.
So, before I dive into the full movie, and another thing I need to stress…if you plan on seeing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, go see it in the afternoon. It is a solid three hour movie. I’m not kidding. It’s two hours and thirty nine minutes, but taking previews into account, yes, it’s a full three hours. I went to a showing at seven and made it home close to 10:30 PM.
The opening is something I want to talk about in detail. Trust me, I won’t give away a thing but I’ll have you interested in the movie if you weren’t before. Normally, opening credits are full of establishing shots that let the watcher know where the movie takes place or sometimes introduces the main characters. In this case, neither of those things occurred. My initial thoughts were that the opening sequence is liquid latex, fetishistic, overly cyber sexual and incredibly seductive. I’m not sure what happened while names flashed on the screen but damnit, I was hooked. I can safely say latex was involved, as was some computer animated computer cords.
That lasted for possibly six minutes. And it’s all freaking awesome.
Once that heated, intense part is over, we dive straight into the movie. Almost immediately we get to meet our main couple, Mikael Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig” and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). I knew nothing of Mara previous to this film, but holy crap, she’s AMAZING. Seriously, if you see this film, see it for her. All her piercings are real and she clearly gets into the role. I could rave about her on and on, but there’s so many things to touch on that we must keep going.
I’m not a fan of Daniel Craig and I’ve come to believe that it is a contractual obligation for him to get naked in every movie he does. Seriously, every movie I’ve seen that he’s in, I’ve had to see him in the buff. Sorry to all the Daniel Craig fans out there, but I don’t find him attractive. He’s just…serious. I’d rather take Mr. Tumnus the faun from The Chronicles of Narnia. He’s played by James McAvoy who is pretty hot and he has a personality.
The movie does get a bit slow at times because like Sherlock Holmes, the whole plot focuses on gathering evidence. And the action doesn’t really pick up until the third act when Lisbeth and Mikael get really close to solving the mystery. Plus, the stories are separate until about midway through when they finally meet and come together. In a sense, there are three plots that merge into a slightly jumbled mess at the end. First we have Lisbeth’s story, which is fairly interesting. We also get Mikael’s life and I was fairly bored with that. Finally, there is the murder mystery plot which took too long to get going.
I know, not all mystery movies can be full of action, but there were times when the film felt like three hours. A truly good film should detach me from the world, suck me and make me lose track of time. Plus, there were times when scenes were stuck in and felt so detached that it made no sense. For instance, the scenes where Lisbeth and Mikael have sex, but at the time it first happens, it’s so out of the blue, it seems forced. Also, I didn’t know you could use dental floss like that.
Now, having said all that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. While most mysteries you can figure out in maybe twenty minutes, this one had me guessing up until the very end, then threw in a twist I had not predicted. It’s pretty shocking and even then, I wasn’t entirely sure if I knew what had happened. I am more compelled to read the book, though it will be difficult now that I am babysitting three little ones for about two weeks. Plus, it’s Christmas followed by New Year’s so forgive me if I vanish for a while. I don’t want to, I have to.
As of right now, I don’t know if the two sequels The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and The Girl Who Played With Fire will be adapted to the silver screen. So far, reports for the movie have said it’s making decent money, so I think there’s a good possibility. I would honestly love to see Mara reprise the role because she embodies it so well. I don’t think I will be able to stop singing her praises for this role. Fun fact, Kristen Stewart was one of the possible actors considered for the role of Lisbeth. Had she been cast, I don’t think I would have seen it. Even though Lisbeth is fairly emotionless, I don’t think Stewart could have done this role justice. And for once, this isn’t just because I can’t stand Kristen Stewart.
I would whole heartedly recommend The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, so long as you can get past the things I mentioned earlier. They don’t sugar coat anything, which gives it a gritty edge to the overall peaceful setting. My one main issue is that the film is set in Sweden Europe , why were they driving American cars? Sure, the plates are clearly European, but the steering wheel is on the left when foreign cars have them on the right. I could be wrong, but if someone else sees this, please either confirm my suspicions or prove me wrong. I really think I’m right on this one.
That’s about all I have to say for now. Butterfly is making me see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which should be interesting since I’ve never watched a single Mission Impossible film. If I can swing it, I’d like to see The Adventures of Tin Tin as well. I also plan on renting Batman Begins this weekend (since SOMEONE told me I had to see it) and maybe even the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Other than that, I’ll be watching Disney movies all day because of the munchkins. I can’t complain. They’re just so darn cute.
Well, I’m TheCinemaChick and love’s what I got, don’t start a riot. You’ll feel it when the dance gets hot. (Ten points if you can tell me the song.)
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