Backed by plenty of critical support and some modest commercial returns, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" gets launched on DVD and Blu-ray this week, looking to scoop up some of the adult demographic that missed it in theaters. Also hitting stores this week will be "The Muppets," the highly acclaimed family film starring Amy Adams and Jason Segel that was a solid success for Disney last November. Roman Polanski's star-studded satire "Carnage" is another title reaching the home market this week and Jonah Hill fans can check out screwball comedy "The Sitter." Thriller "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" gives adults another option and a new special edition Blu-ray set is launching this week for cult hit "Battle Royale."
Now near the top of the A-list, director David Fincher delved back into darker territory with his adaptation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," a film that should remind audiences a lot more of "Seven" and "Fight Club" than "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." With an acclaimed performance from star Rooney Mara, "Dragon Tattoo" was mostly a hit with adult audiences when it reached theaters this past holiday season, though it didn't take off at the box office the way that Sony/Columbia had hoped. But even though "Dragon Tattoo" wasn't a runaway commercial hit, it still racked up a steady $229 million worldwide and announced a new action character that can carry a franchise.
Frode then calls Blomkvist to see if he’s interested in a job, doing an investigation of a cold case. Blomkvist is taken to an isolated island owned by the Vanger family. He’s asked by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the death of his grandniece Harriet who vanished from the island in the 1960s and was never seen again. Harriet’s brother Martin (Stellan Skarsgard) now runs Vanger Enterprises.
They have always presumed Harriet was dead but Henrik gets a birthday present mailed to him every year and it is something that only she knew. He has assumed that these have come from her killer and has led to his obsession with finding out what happened to her.
Now the aging Henrik wants to have other eyes look over the case so that he might have a resolution before he dies. Mikael moves into a guest house and begins his investigation. His sleuthing will bring the case back to life but also put him on a collision course with Salander.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes from the hit book by the late Stieg Larsson, one of a trilogy of books he was tinkering with that were only found on his computer after his too soon death.
They turned into an international hit and even into Swedish films. It wasn’t too unexpected when Hollywood turned their attentions to them. It did seem a bit odd since films had already been made and had a somewhat successful theatrical and home video release - but that didn’t seem to stop anyone.
I will say that I found the original film excellent. I’ve not found time to read the books but hope to one day, as well as watching the second and third Swedish films. The initial thought was that why mess with a film that was great already, but in our age of remaking remakes I guess we should’ve just been happy that they were tackling more adult material instead of PG-13 hooey.
I would say that both films are at least equal. I can’t pick the winner in this race, but each has charms all its own. Fincher’s certainly is glossier, but both feature fantastic performances. It’s not just a matter of filming in English as Fincher puts his own spin on things.
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