The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Directed by: David Fincher

Starring: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer

Overall Rating: 97.6

As is always the case, David Fincher proves himself as the go-to director when it comes to telling a dark, psychological thriller with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  From start to finish, "Dragon Tattoo" leaves you on the edge of your seat, captivated by the immense story and dark direction. 

Rooney Mara explodes off the screen as the troubled freelance hacker, Lisbeth Salander.  After casting her as the love interest in "The Social Network", Fincher says he fell in love with Rooney and easily saw her playing this intense, universally loved character.  He was right.  As Lisbeth, Mara shows the widest range of emotions, from fear and pain to all out ballsy confidence.  She makes you feel bad for her, fear her, and attracted to her all at the same time, a feat that very few but Mara could pull off.

The story follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) who is hired by a man (Plummer) to help solve a 40 year murder mystery involving his family.  Along the way, Blomkvist brings on the young Salander to assist in his research and attempts to uncover the murderer's identity.

Based on the universally acclaimed Stieg Larsson novel out of Sweden, Fincher and company do a good job of keeping true to the source material, while still maintaining a uniqueness all their own.  They even include plenty of references to the original Swedish version of the film from 2009, including using the same location and house for shooting.

The sound design is essential to helping keep the suspense building.  Teaming up again with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Fincher uses the sound to not only startle you, but to unnerve you.  Certain scenes alone are tough to sit through, but with Reznor's industrial music in the background, it's enough to make you wish you could turn it off.  But you can't, and you shouldn't.

Visually, the snowy Swedish landscape again takes you to a place of non-comfort.  With the snow so pure, it's easy to get lost in the wintry wonderland, but instead are trapped in a murder mystery where anyone and everyone is a suspect.  Throw in an opening credits sequence that rivals any Bond opening, mixing industrial imagery and Karen O's cover of "Immigrant Song", and it's one of the more impressive visual films in recent memory.

Fincher's ability to alter your mood through a couple hours of film has always been apparent.  With "Dragon Tattoo", he completes his best work since 2007's "Zodiac".  It's a powerful performance by Mara that shouldn't be missed.

Individual Ratings
Enjoyment Factor: 10
Dialogue: 9
Acting: 9
Direction: 9
Audio/Visual: 10