Film version of ‘Girl with Dragon Tattoo’ stays true to novel of grit

DANIEL Craig as Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

When Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004, he was to many just a 50-year-old Swedish journalist, a reporter at one of Sweden’s largest news agencies, Tidningarnas Telegambyrå (Newspapers’ Telegram Bureau). Then they found the manuscripts.

There were three finished novels apparently intended as a series; an unfinished fourth on a laptop; and gists and writings for probably two more.

The first three eventually found print, and are now known collectively as the best-selling “Millennium Trilogy,” after the fictional magazine run by the novels’ main protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist.

Of course, Larsson was hardly “just” a journalist. He was a Trotskyist, a member of the Communist Workers League, and later the founder of the Swedish Expo Foundation, all while conducting research on Swedish right-wing extremism and gaining a good number of political enemies.

But perhaps Larsson’s greatest contribution to modern fiction is not the alternate reality where the political and racist predilections of big, moneyed entities are gutted from behind immaculate corporate façades. We have a fair share of that from American scribes, particularly of the legal thriller genre.

Neither is Blomkvist, Larsson’s literary Doppelgänger, an activist of sorts who roots out dirt in the shadier parts of corporate finance. The real hero is, in fact, an antihero, an outcast, and, apparently amid an unseen Swedish supremacist culture, a young woman, Lisbeth Salander.

Heavily armored personality

In “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Salander is a computer-hacking prodigy lost in the middle of Stockholm’s social welfare system. She uses her computing skills to work for an investigation agency, easily becoming the best there with her detailed results.

She is assigned to track down Blomkvist, who in the meantime is convicted for a libel charge by a corporate titan.

Described as “a pale, skinny young woman who had hair as short as a fuse,” she sports tattoos of a wasp on her neck, loops on her left bicep and ankle, and a dragon on her left shoulder blade.

With a heavily armored personality, she is wilfully antisocial and indifferent as to consequences, particularly when getting what she wants.

But she ends up working with the man she was asked to investigate. Blomkvist sees her qualities as curious, but altogether not unattractive.

Their case is the unsolved, 40-year-old disappearance of Harriet Vanger, of the wealthy Vanger family, whose conglomerate turns out to be the archrivals of Blomkvist’s legal tormentor, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom.

Henrik, the current Vanger head, thinks Harriet was murdered during a family reunion, and commissions Blomkvist to find closure to the story in exchange for Wennerstrom’s head on a silver platter.

Thus, we are introduced to the inner workings of a Swedish family corporation, including tales of intrigue, twisted ideologies, and family’s brand of distrust of other members.

Swedish adaptation

In 2009, “Tattoo” was filmed by Niels Arden Oplev, a writer-director from Denmark, and earned international acclaim.

For film fans of the novel, any film adaptation should hinge on Salander’s character. For his Lisbeth, Oplev chose to work with Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, who, likewise, earned acclaim.

Fincher’s own Lisbeth Salander is 26-year-old American film and television actress Rooney Mara, who  played the Erica Albright to Jessie Eisenbergs’ Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network.” (Blomkvist is played here by James Bond actor Daniel Craig, who gives the journalist the right amount of bumbling to go with his investigative mind.)

Two things stand out immediately with Mara.

First, Mara is Lisbeth’s age, and her younger profile perfectly fits what New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutami calls a “fierce pixie of a heroine…a gamin, Audrey Hepburn look-alike with tattoos and piercings.”

Second, Fincher ain’t a flincher—he obviously made Mara jump through the proverbial hoops, and she delivers well enough for an Oscar nomination (Best Actress in a Leading Role).

Aside from Fincher, thanks are due to screenplay writer Steven Zaillian, who also wrote “Gangs of New York” (2002) and “Schindler’s List” (1993).

“The script was cut whole-cloth from the novel,” Fincher said.

Larsson’s writing style is unflinching and graphic, from the description of bloody wounds to the tangled web of sexual relationships.

Indeed, the gritty finish of the film owes much to the original text. But more than just a wanton display, the severe treatment actually contextualizes the characters, helping us to understand, love or hate them more.

Without this context, the story would have become a run-of-the-mill whodunit with the requisite but distasteful sex. (We are informed, thank God, that local censors will allow the uncut version of the film under an R18 rating.)

Sequels?

Either that, or the rating of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” will cause it to fade away, passed over for less-deserving flicks just because the latter are much more palatable blockbusters. Yes, even if Mara wins.

But who knows? Like the story and the character of Lisbeth Salander (and their creator, incidentally), there are just matters that you discover when something disappears, matters which would press you to give a second look.

Where the film will go from here remains to be seen. There are two more books in the trilogy, and it would be a treat to have them worked over by Fincher, as well.

Fincher’s filmography, which includes dark thrillers such as “Seven” (1995), “Panic Room” (2002), and “Zodiac” (2007), makes it apparent that he should give them a go.

Oplev bothered to, and with the way the right audiences will certainly receive Fincher’s version of “Tattoo,” there is no reason why he should not.

Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 1, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.