'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'
(Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, et al / NR / 168 mins)
Overview: A discredited journalist (Daniel Craig) and a mysterious computer hacker discover that even the wealthiest families have skeletons in their closets while working to solve the mystery of a 40-year-old murder in this David Fincher-directed remake of the 2009 Swedish thriller of the same name.
Verdict: Brilliant and engrossing adaptation of the book. For those of you familiar with the Swedish films, this is not a remake of the 2009 movie. Mostly filmed in Sweden, it feels like a foreign film. I found it beautifully directed, filmed, acted, written, and scored.
Rooney Mara is pitch perfect as Lisbeth Salander, as is Daniel Craig's Blomkvist. For a two-hour and forty-eight minute film, it sure went fast. Highly recommend, but not for kids. This film is even more graphic in some ways than the original film. For an American film, that's saying something.
Again, Craig was believable and compelling as Mikhail Bloomquist; Rooney Mara was riveting. She made that role her own. Sound track and cinemetography (OK, I can't spelll) were wonderful. We've seen, and loved, the Swedish version, and this one held up quite well, better than expected. All in all, an outstanding movie experience.