Dec 28, 2011

BP Film Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

(Image from Movieweb.com)

IMDB Plot Summery 
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.

Expectations…
My Expectations for The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo (Dragon Girl) were pretty high. Director David Fincher has proven himself to be one of Hollywood’s most capable filmmakers, and stands as one of my all time favorite directors. (I’ll still try to be as objective as a can on this review)

Entertainment Value…
Judging the entertainment value of Dragon Girl is tough. Entertainment is pretty subjective. What some find funny, others may find extremely offensive. What some see as bold, and brave filmmaking, others may see as offensive, and disturbing. I doubt that anyone would consider much of the subject matter presented in Dragon Girl as entertaining. Judging the film’s entertainment value on a scale of triggering an emotional response however (some being unpleasant emotions) … then I would have to say the value is pretty high.

Overall…
For fans of filmmaking as an art/craft, I would almost regard Dragon Girl as required viewing. Aspiring filmmakers can learn volumes from virtually ever frame of this film from their composition alone. It also stands as a supreme example of how characters can present who they are by what they do rather than what they say. Anyone expecting this to be another “Kill Bill” type thriller however, will be very disappointed. Dragon Girl is almost entirely a character study of a very disturbed yet brilliant young “lady”. As a movie going experience Dragon Girl is never really boring but can feel very slow to develop. There are several very disturbing scenes, some can even be difficult to watch and emotionally overwhelming. These scenes aren’t so much disturbing by what is visually presented on-screen but rather by the essence of the subject matter.  Being that the film is, for the most part,  a character study the plot structure seems a little irrelevant, and the story is really more just a series of events set up to explore, the main character’s motivations. Overall, I believe Dragon Girl is mostly intended for fans of the novels and fans of cinema, but judging by the size of the audience in the theater I watched it in, not a movie for ticket buyers looking for a loud and exciting holiday season thrill ride.  

The Good…
The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo is unlike any of the movies distributed nation wide this year, and a must see for aspiring filmmakers.

The Not So Good…
It’s not an entertaining film in the traditional sense, some elements are disturbing, and not at all appropriate for a general audience.

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