...here's looking at you, Betty,
Hey, it aint half bad. Then again, neither were the Swedish films. In fact, they were marvy. Big act to follow. But the yanks have done ok. Brought home to me how strong these characters (pertiklerly Lisbeth Salander) are, that I'm interested in reading about her, then watching 2 different actresses have a go in 2 different shows.
Just realised that most of what I want to say is going to be comparative- oh well, here goes. Rooney Mara (the yank Lisbeth) and Daniel Craig (the yank Micke, even if Craig's not a yank) bring stuff to the roles that is worth watching, even if you know the characters. They're not better than or worse than Rapace and Niqvist in the Swedish films, just different depths, shades.... Stellan Skarsgard gets to turn in a chilling performance as the yank Martin Vanger- maybe not quite Hannibal Lecter, but getting up there. It's a wee bit internationalised. Themes from the book such as Sweden's nazi past feel a little trumped up for the rest of the world, whereas the original book defo had a feeling of being written for a Swedish audience. The violent abuse suffered by Lisbeth is still graphically depicted- less graphically than in the novel or the swedish version, but still pretty full on- specially for Hollywood. This was the one part of the movie I really didnt need to sit thru again, as necessary as it may be for character/plot development.
So. Final comments. Noone complains everytime someone does Shakespeare'oh it's already been done'- so we should all just pull our heads in & let the storytellers get on with it, I reckon. Ditto to all of the naysayers bitching on about the complexity of the material and the holes in the plot. I can think of an enormous array of classics with those issues. The Millenium Trilogy is a modern classic. Lisbeth Salander is a fabbo female sort- of- heroine & Micke Blomkvist is a much more interesting sort- of- hero than most. I just wish Stieg Larsson was still around to write dozens more stories for us :(
Ratings: Swedish film 8.2/10 Yanks 7.8/10
Squeezed a viewing in on the weekend, & totes enjoyed it. I was fearing a 007/Bourne/MI style sleek & glam version, but was impressed by the Euro feel. Did it need to be remade? Some say "no", but talk at the hairdressers was "yes". Either way, the result was surprisingly good. Thumbs up for:
ReplyDelete- setting
- casting
- soundtrack.
The accents weren't noticably bad, & the story wasn't dumbed down.
Dan Craig was more vulnerable than his usual charming machoism, & Rooney Mara did a top Lisbeth.
Violence isn't my idea of entertainment, & even though expected, I still averted my eyes.
All in all - better than expected, and better than most.
p.s. Did you see Jim Robinson appearing as a detective?
ReplyDeletep.p.s And how about the ending not being in Aust? That threw me, & I had to question Anita's previous comments to Micke about Harriet in that light.
ReplyDeleteJim Robinson? What? Really? Wish I'd know to look out for him....what scenes? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybours....
ReplyDeletere the Aus thing- yeah that sucked, even more than the crappy version of Aus the Swedes created. Honestly. It was a little late in the day to begin tidying the plot up, wasnt it?
ps: so- if you had to choose- whose version wins?
ReplyDeleteSwedes win by a half a head.
ReplyDeleteFor:
- audacity
- authenticity
- and being first
yup, yup and yup
DeleteAlan Dale played a detective who obligingly showed Lisbeth a gory cold case.
ReplyDelete& although I'm not a fan of offensive Tshirts, I particularly enjoyed Lisbeth's "Fuck you,you fucking fuck". I have days like that.
ReplyDeleteyes, we had a giggle. Blue Velvet, I believe....
DeleteAlso amusing was the chatty teens sitting behind us in the cinema - pondering the meaning of the term "cunnilingus".
ReplyDeleteAnd with the current propensity of youths to tatts, I thought there'd be more images of the titled tatt in the movie.
ReplyDeleteAlso must mention the great opening to the US flick with trippy, fluid graphics & a rockin' cover of Led Zep's Immigrant Song. Really set up the intense mood of the story.
ReplyDeleteAfter re-watching Version Sweden, and re-reading the book, I've realised that the US version actually keeps closer to the book storyline. In the end, Lisbeth does throw Micke's xmas pressie in the dumpster, it's Micke's daughter who lets on about Leviticus, and Micke goes to Martin's after recognising his jumper in the photo. These aspects were all changed in the Swedish version.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, Wiki quotes the US budget as $90 million, and the Swedish as $13 million.