The Hanna Hammer

The found footage movie has had quite a lot of success for itself over the past three years. Despite its roots firmly stemming from 1999’s the Blair Witch Project, this type of movie really didn’t come into the mind of the popular conscience until 2009’s Paranormal Activity, a movie that made audiences terrified and producers tons and tons of money. Almost every entry since has followed this formula: make a cheap horror movie and cash in big off of word of mouth or viral ads. While the cheap and atmospheric horror that gave this kind of film making its name still makes for a good time at the theater, it is nice to take a break and watch a found footage movie tread some new grounds.

Chronicle is the perfect movie to show anyone who is a naysayer of found footage film-making. It explores a new genre to this style with talent both behind and in front of the camera. Starting in the begging with the purchase of a rather nice camera by poor and abused teenager Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Chronicle quickly moves into detailing his life, be it his meager outcast status at his high school, his single friendship with his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), or the exact opposite figure at his high school to him: prospective class president and total stud Steve (Michael B. Jordan). A teenager’s life through the eyes of a camera is a pretty lofty idea for a movie, so these three soon enough come into contact with a huge magical crystal of some sort and gain super powers. The following events are something of a mix between X-men First Class and Cloverfield with a lot of Akira thrown in for good measure.

Chronicle is a well written and acted movie, especially when considering that screenwriter Max Landis has little previous experience and that it is safe to assume no one has ever heard of these leads. The movie is paced well during the first two acts. Watching the characters gain and learn how to use their powers by flying around the city, playing pranks on people, and trying to get laid is really fun and is totally what high school kids would do with powers like this. The three lead actors sell these low impact moments really well, but are also able to deliver on the emotional moments. Despite all of them being rather unknown prospects they each fill in their roles very well and we will likely be seeing them again. The movie does lose a bit of its charm and momentum towards the third act, but the final scenes are still exciting and the contrivances in the story as Chronicle sets up its endgame are forgivable when one considers the quality of the rest of the movie.

The direction of the movie is also quite good. Found footage is a limiting way of filming a movie and newcomer Josh Trank does a lot of interesting things with the camerawork in Chronicle. Several cameras are introduced through the course of the film to give different viewpoints on the events and while it is a little silly that all these kids have awesome cameras, it is still a pretty effective way to keep the camera work from getting stale. The camera is used in some unexpected and creative ways to get different views and angles and the found footage aspect really works in a good way to make the movie stand out and really separate it from both superhero movies of the past couple years and other found footage movies alike.

The found footage style of film-making is a relatively new and unknown prospect. It seems for every movie to use it effectively, another uses it to make something completely detestable (I’m looking at you the Devil Inside). For a style that seems like it can’t quite get out of the horror genre it is nice to see one that does something different, especially when it does it so well. Chronicle is an entertaining and interesting entry into the found footage film catalog and is one of the best of the past few years.

4/5

Liam Neeson’s career has been gone through a rather confusing track over the past decade or so. Though he has been around since the late seventies in some incarnation or another, Neeson really came into the public consciousness with 1996’s Schindler’s List and 1999’s Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace. After these movies his career went into something of a hibernation period with him popping up in supporting roles or bit parts. Then, like a hungry bear awakening from said slumber, his career exploded with new-found vitality after 2008’s Taken, and in a much different capacity. Now Neeson is a Harrison Ford for a new generation, a kind of old dude who delivers what the people want: he beating the shit out of things. This is the Liam Neeson the advertisers of the Grey wanted you to think you would see, and so for that I suppose they are at fault for some false advertising. If you are going to see the Grey to see Liam Neeson beat the shit out of some dogs Taken style, you will be disappointed. The Grey is not Taken with dogs, instead it harkins back to 1990’s Liam Neeson with a more restrained Jack London-esque story of man vs. nature with some incredible intensity and a surprising philosophical agenda.

The Grey is about Ottway (Neeson) a lonely man working out in Alaska as a type of security guard for a mining company, except instead of keeping people out he keeps out the wild animals native to Alaska: bears, wolves, what have you. He and a few co-workers board a flight to Anchorage which crashes into the middle of the Alaskan Tundra, and much to the chagrin of our seven survivors, the middle of a wolf pack’s ‘kill zone’. Now, with no rescue in sigh, the seven men must fight against the weather and the wolves for their very survival.

The Grey is a very intense movie in a kind of way I wasn’t expecting. Fear comes from what you don’t see: the howl of a wolf, the breaking of twigs, lone growls off in the distance. This isn’t a movie about Liam Neeson beating the shit out of dogs with broken beer bottles on his hands, it is more intelligent than that. The intensity and pacing of events in the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat, and even though the wolf attacks are a bit predictable, when they do happen a deep sense of some latent primitive fear comes out. If there is any complaint to be made about the fear elements of the movie it has to be directed towards the cgi wolves, which makes that intensity drop off a bit when you actually do see them in broad light. However it’s pretty unethical to actually do this stuff with real dogs, so I’m not sure what other option they had, I just wish it was not as distracting.

Along the way the Grey also fleshes out its rag-tag team of survivors in well done but predictable ways, choosing to settle on a central idea for the group rather than trying to juggle a million different back-stories and themes at once. Everybody has someone back home, be it a daughter, girlfriend, or wife, and they fight to survive to see these people again. It is simplistic but not cheap, it does make you care when these people die and it supports the different themes and conflicts within the film itself. Though the acting isn’t spectacular from any one person, the entire cast does their job bringing these characters and people to life well enough that it is effective and makes you care, and it is nice to see Neeson in a more restrained persona.

The directing in the Grey, under the guidance of Joe Carnahan, is pretty good. Light is used very effectively to hide the dangers surrounding them and the flashbacks are handled in a different and interesting way. He paces the movie fairly well and his direction serves the fear elements of the film tremendously. However, the writing in the Grey is what makes the move truly stand out among other survival tales; the Grey is surprisingly intelligent, it handles its various philosophical themes and ideas very well and it brings this movie up a step above the Neeson vs. dog romp that people undoubtedly thought they were going to see.

And in the end it is your devotion to this expectation that will dictate whether you like this movie or not. The Grey is better than a lot of late-January romps out there and is a surprisingly intelligent and intense movie. But this is not an action movie, in fact the number of confrontations between wolf and man could be counted on a single hand. The ending of the Grey is also certain to polarize groups, and though I was disappointed when I walked out of the theater, upon reflection of the movie as a whole I have come to the conclusion the movie could have ended in no other way. The Grey is notTaken with dogs, but is a slow and intelligent thriller that will reward those willing to look past the advertising.

4/5

You know, this is just typical Hollywood, whoring out movies and bringing down an entire art form so that they can… no. You know what? I don’t even fucking care anymore, this is hilarious. As if this series wasn’t enough of a joke already it looks like Sony will be using the new entry in this bizarrely popular abomination of a seires to pimp such products as the Vita and their new phones/tablets that won’t come near outselling the iPhone/iPad. Also, the movie looks like shit. And it will make gangbusters. So it looks like Hollywood wins again. 

When I started doing reviews I was concerned about running into a problem that a lot of unknown, new-timer movie reviewers ran into: I would only review movies I like. If one was to go through the first few reviews I have done, the lowest score I’ve given out has been a 4/5. To try and make myself a bit more credible I have decided to go out and see a movie every weekend, be it one I had an interest in or not. I am proud to say this practice has already provided some fruit and has given me the first bad movie I get to review, that movie being Mark Wahlberg’s Contraband. Contraband is not an offensively terrible movie, even if the trailer blasting an obnoxious Zombie Nation remix might suggest otherwise, but at the same time it doesn’t do anything particularly well either.

Contraband is a heist movie in the most basic form. Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) is an ex-smuggler and when he was working he was the Han-Solo of contraband smuggling. He is out of work and is now ‘clean’ with a security company, wife (Beckinsale), and two kids whose only personality traits are that they are cute and play soccer. Coincidentally his wife’s brother is also a smuggler and not a very good one at that. He gets busted smuggling some coke, because of course it’s coke, into the country. He dumps it and one of the most obnoxious villains of the last few years Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) decides to kill him. One thing leads to another and Farraday has to come out of retirement to do one last job to save his idiot brother-in-law and bland family.

Its an incredibly standard plot that is unwilling to take chances. Of course the heist goes all wrong, but even when things are really hitting the fan the sense of suspense is just absent due to both poor direction of the action scenes and a sense that no matter what happens this story will be resolved in favor of the good guys with a nice bow on top. There is an event towards the end of the movie that seems it will ruin the happy ending for Farraday and to be honest it gives the movie a little bit more suspense, even if the circumstances around it were silly. But then the writers back out of it and give this movie a huge bow on the top of it.Contraband has probably one of the silliest, most contrived endings I’ve seen in a long time. Again it isn’t offensively terrible; it is a best mediocre and at worst silly.

The by-the-numbers plot of the movie is carried by characters who are really pretty terrible. One of the primary purposes of a character in a movie is to change. Ideally they are different people at the end of the movie then they are at the beginning. Not one character changes at the end of this movie and if it has a lesson to teach then the lesson is smuggle because it will get you tons of cash and is real cool. This is all of course the fault of a horrible screenplay filled with cardboard characters and at time cringe-worthy dialogue. Ever wanted to hear Mark Wahlberg exclaim “you got a lot of pussy in here” upon entering a room filled with cats? Me neither, but it happens. Everyone’s characters are bad, from Wahlberg’s annoying and blank Chris to Ben Foster’s Sebastian who starts out the movie half sympathetic but by the end becomes a coke sniffing maniac for little to no reason. I didn’t care Chris’s family at any point in the movie because the wife has no wants or ambitions of her own and their kids are blank slates of what some adult screenwriter apparently thought kids are like when he sat in a dark room writing this movie. I could watch those kids die a thousand times and wouldn’t care, and considering they are one of the primary catalysts for the drama in the movie this is a very bad fact indeed. Contraband also has a couple plot holes in it too, for instance why does his house not have a security system when he owns a security system company? Why does he bring Andy along when he told him to stop smuggling things and the kid is obviously dead weight? I don’t know and neither did the screenwriters.Contraband does have an entertaining ten minutes in the second act, but overall it suffers from a very weak screenplay filled with silly characters, dialogue, and plot-holes.

Wahlberg and Foster do their hardest for their respective characters and to be fair they did a fine job with what they were given. Sure, Wahlberg does say some very bad and stupid things in this movie, but at least he is just playing the Marky-Mark we all want to see. It isn’t the Fighter, but he and foster do fine. Giovanni Ribisi is is pretty terrible though, his voice and mannerisms make for a villain that is both annoying and presents no sense of danger at any time. I also hated Caleb Landry Jones, but I cannot tell if this was the absolute shit character he was playing or his acting. To be honest it was probably a little bit of both. The acting in Contraband isn’t its bad point, there are a couple bad performances but the screenplay it at least partly at fault for this. Marlon Brando couldn’t make these characters compelling.

Baltasar Kormákur’s direction is at best mediocre. Paul Greengrass’s bastard child skay-cam is here and in full force during the few fights that dot the movie’s running time. It is hard to tell what is going on during these fights so I guess its nice to know that in any confrontation the only thing happening is Mark Wahlberg beating ass. Kormákur is also a big fan of extreme close ups. If there is dialogue of any kind happening be ready for someone’s face to take up 95% of the screen. It is passable for some instances where it happens, but at others it borders on hilarity. It is amateurish directing sure, but I have also seen worse.

There are worse movies out there than Contraband. Most of its problems come from an absolutely terrible screenplay, one so bad that I would argue this movie should be worse than it is. Wahlberg and Foster do their best with what they are given, but just cannot salvage their respective flat and silly characters. Kormákur’s direction also doesn’t help with his perplexing closeups and shaky cam shots, but really Paul Thomas Anderson couldn’t save this script. I started going to a random midnight movie every weekend so that I could review some bad movies to give my good reviews some more weight and in a way I am glad I saw Contraband first. If you were to see any heist movie in your life you could do a whole lot worse than Contraband but you could also do much better.

2/5

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was first released in the middle of Bondmania, the first real explosion of spy-oriented literature. Despite being able to be cast into the same broad spectrum of fiction, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy bears about as much resemblance to the stories of James Bond as ET does to Skyline. The flashy and handsome bond is replaced by aging Smiley and the missions to prevent global destruction are now a slow and methodical game of cat and mouse between Smiley and a mole in the upper reaches of the circus. Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 adaptation of John le Carré’s novel comes at a similar time to its namesake. Spy movies are huge again, lead this time by Jason Bourne rather than James Bond (ok, James Bond is a close second). Contemporary spy films are more grounded in reality than the ridiculous antics of 1960’s James Bond, but manage to still move at a breakneck pace. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is as refreshing as a film in 2011 as it was when first released as a book in 1974. It is a stylish and intelligent movie with a stellar cast and extremely well crafted plotline.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has perhaps one of the most talent packed casts of any movie released in the past decade. With names like Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, and Benedict Cumberbatch attached to the project, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s cast is packed to the rim with talented actors who come fairly cheap by today’s standard. While the entire cast puts in great performances, with special attention delivered to Firth and Hardy, Oldman really stands out. His performance as the iconic George Smiley is emotionless and gray. He moves through the investigation, never letting his emotions get the better of him or showing his hand to anyone. Oldman is unrecognizable as the actor seen in the Batman movies. His hair is gray, his movement painfully slow, and we can practically hear his joints crackle as he tiptoes around a dark apartment. It is a performance which can be summed up in terms opposite of those which are usually used when praising acting and is both unique and excellent. The entire cast puts their all into the movie, and it certainly comes through in the end. 

The plot of the movie is extremely well written and unpredictable. Every character has a purpose within the story and the acting in the movie brings each and every one of these key players to life. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy’s plot operates at a different pace from those of other contemporary spy films. This is not a movie about twists and turns, it is a methodical and careful investigation. The game of cat and mouse between Smiley and the mole is especially interesting, even more so towards the end when the motives and actions of the mole are revealed to us. The central mystery, the identity of the spy, is kept unclear until exactly the right moment. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy never shows you its hand and has you guessing until it decides to show you its secrets. Your suspicions about the identity of the mole will jump from character to character at precisely decided times and when the final revelation comes to pass everything fits together and makes sense. For a film adaptation of a book complex enough to warrant a short series, it is very focused in its direction and incredibly dense. 

Tomas Alfredson’s direction is also well above par. His shots, like the plot and central character, are slow and methodical, just as it was in his previous film Let the Right One In. He takes his time and lets the story unfold before us at just the right pace. The shaky-cam shots of contemporary spy films are gone in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alfredson instead deciding on a slower and more calculated directing style. His sense of style is also as apparent in this film as it was in Let the Right One In. The film is cast almost entirely in dark tones and drab colors, the world of the spy is in no means glamorized by the tone he creates with his style. This is gritty, real work, and Alfredson’s direction gets this point across splendidly. 

 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one extreme of the spy movie that we don’t much get anymore. It is a slow and precise film with both an unpredictable and intelligent plot carried by fantastic acting by some soon-to-be big names in the acting world. For some Tinker Tailor Solider Spy may be too slow or restrained, but for those of us out there willing to go at its pace lies an intelligent and intriguing spy movie. 

4.5/5

A claymation penguin reenactment of John Carpenter’s phenomenal horror movie the Thing. It is adorable, gruesome, and hilarious. 

Well, it’s nice to be back. The holidays are nice and all, but during all that rest and relaxation it appears that I forgot about this little soapbox of mine. Considering that I am now up to 7 subscribers, one billionth of the human population mind you, I feel as if I should keep the content flowing. 

With the end of the year comes a literal flood of top ten lists. From the top ten music albums of the year to the top ten funny things done by a chimpanzee, people will make a list about fucking anything. Being that I want to be a part of the party I will do a top ten list as well. Expect a top five videogames list later this week (videogames are much more expensive than movies so I have experienced less of them). But that is later this week, right here, right now is the time for my top ten movies of 2011. 

10. Crazy, Stupid, Love
                                           

Call me a girly man (actually don’t, my feelings are very tender) but I just loved this movie. I’m a guy who usually hates romantic comedies and when I was taken to this on a date towards the end of the summer I can’t say I was looking forward to it. Luckily I was surprised by the smart jokes and very good writing that I found within it. Even though it is kind of cliche towards the end, Crazy, Stupid, Love has just enough charm, jokes, and intelligence to separate itself from the army of romcoms out there and take its spot as my number ten movie of the year. That legitimately great plot twist didn’t hurt either.  

9. Source Code

Duncan Jones’s first movie Moon was an amazing sci-fi, one good enough to put the young director onto my ‘will watch any movie he makes’ list. When I first heard of Source Code, the premise certainly sounded fascinating, and once I heard Jones was directing it it became a must see for me. While it does not live up to Moon, Source Code is still an amazing sci-fi thriller. This type of movie, which blends science fiction and romance so well, is hardly made anymore. Despite the silly final few minutes, Source Code is the finest crafted sci-fi drama since Inception, and has kept Duncan Jones on my list of directors to keep an eye on. 

8. Super 8

Super 8 is a movie that I love simply because movies like it just are not made anymore. The atmosphere, childish wonder, and the heart in the movie is something right out of a mid-eighties Spielberg flick. It is perhaps even more amazing that Spielberg didn’t even direct it, instead JJ Abrams injects his own style to the Spielberg framework, making for a fantastic movie. Super 8 takes me back to the days of sitting in my big brother’s room after my bed time and watching ET with him, or Jurassic Park, or First Encounters… you get the idea. These moments of my childhood shaped how I view movies today and the fact that Super 8 can transport me back to those early formative years so effectivley makes it an easy pick for the number eight position. And it’s named Super 8… get it? 

7. Bridesmaids 

Bridesmaids, like Crazy, Stupid, Love was a movie I thought I would hate given its trailer which tries to play it off as the raunchy comedy women ‘wanted’ for years. As it turns out, it is exactly that. Yes, Bridesmaids is raunchy and stupid in parts. I mean, there is a poop gag with food poisoning for god sake! But that stupidity and the raunchiness is done so… intelligently that it works. Kristen Wiig gives a terrific performance, but she is also helped by a superb supporting cast. The smart writing and great comedic performances help Bridesmaids be more than the Hangover for girls and gives it the number seven spot on my list. 

6. The Descendants 

The Descendants is an Oscar bair movie, clear and simple. However it would also be unfair to describe this film in such simplistic terms. Yes, it is complete Oscar bait, but it is also made with a heart to it that these kinds of films typically miss. George Clooney and Shailene Woodley are great, but the true greatness of the movie comes from the clear devotion of the entire cast and crew to it. Without that heart at the core of the movie it wouldn’t have been half as good as it is. As it stands now however, the Descendants is an expertly and lovingly crafted family drama and fully deserves its spots as the number six movie of 2011. 

5. 13 Assassins 

13 Assassins calls back to an era of film-making gone by, however the movie also works two-fold; it acts not only as an homage to classic samurai films but it also moves the genre forward. 13 Assassins is an extremely entertaining movie with its interesting characters and powerful themes. It also helps that it features the best action scene of the year, a 45 minute romp where the titular 13 assassins take on literally hundreds of guards in bloody mortal combat. 13 Assassins is bloody, engaging, and the fifth best movie of the year. 

4. I Saw the Devil

Over the past few years South Korea has experienced something of a renaissance with its film making. From the bombastic and silly the Good, the Bad, and the Weird to the violent and powerful Oldboy, Korea has really come into the global market as a world leader in film. I Saw the Devil stands alongside these and other great films the country has put out the last half-decade. It is as violent as Oldboy, but also has a more restrained side to it. The game of cat and mouse between killer and victim in the movie is one of the best ever put to film, supported by stellar acting from both its leads. I Saw the Devil may not be a movie for those of us with weak stomachs, but it is still one of the best movies Korea has put over its recent renaissance and will rightfully take its place among the country’s greats. 

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a movie that just oozes style. From the opening title sequence to the end credit crawl, Fincher’s stylistic touch permeates each shot. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not without substance as well. The themes of the novel are ever present in this adaptation and are executed very well and the central mystery of the film is genuinely compelling and has a pretty great payoff. Rooney Mara carries the film on her shoulders in her spectacular performance as Lisbeth Salander and it will be a crime if she doesn’t get a best supporting actress nod. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score is also deserving of an Oscar as it is one of the finest original scores of the past decade. It is a shame the film looses a bit of itself at the very end, however, the performances, Fincher’s style, and Reznor and Ross’s score add up to outweigh the very few bad parts of the film, making it one of the best of the year. 

2. Midnight in Paris 

Midnight in Paris is a comedy that appeals to the intellectuals out there while also maintaining enough of a genuinely funny core that almost anyone can laugh at it, even if you don’t know who Gertrude Stein is. Its poignant themes about nostalgia and how everyone views the past is one of the more powerful this year, and the emotional side of the plot is carried effortlessly by Owen Wilson in his all time best performance. Quite simply, Midnight in Paris is a beautifully shot. expertly made comedy and is one of the best movies of this year.  

1.Drive 

Drive is just… so goddamn good. From the soundtrack, to the acting, to the story, to the themes, and especially the style. Right from the outset this film sucked me right into its world with a fantastic chase scene and fascinating premise. Drive kept me in its grasp for the next two hours, mostly due to the fantastic style of the film and the ways it referenced genres of films gone by, everything from LA car movies of the eighties to samurai flicks out of 60’s Japan. No other movie this year was like Drive, in fact, no other movie is like Drive. Despite the influences it took from films past, Drive is a movie the likes of which I have never seen before; it’s ultraviolent, stylish, has an amazing soundtrack, and is the best movie of the year. 

Note: I have not seen Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Attack the Block, My Week with Marilyn, the Artist, Shame, or Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol yet. If and when I get around to seeing these movies I may make some special adjustments or notes to this list. 

The New York Times did a photoshoot/video series where a bunch of actors dressed up as famous movie villiains. Rooney Mara dressed up as Alex DeLarge is kind of awesome. Ryan Gosling and George Clooney are in it too.  

So to start off this review I must get something off my chest: I have not read the books. Well, to be absolutely truthful I have read the first twenty pages of the first book in a well meaning but ultimately futile attempt to read the book before the movie came out. For fans of the book, or at least the first twenty pages of the first book, don’t worry because the first ten minutes of the movie are a very good adaptation of those first twenty pages. For everyone else out there, here is my review.

Released posthumously in 2005, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels have become a surprise worldwide sensation leading to a miniseries, a popular and well received Swedish movie (along with its sequels of questionable quality), and finally this inevitable American adaptation. Fans of the books and original movies all over the world must have absolutely pillaged the internet like a horde of angry vikings when the american adaptation was announced, but the tremendously talented David Fincher being attached to it calmed them down a bit. David Fincher is known as a master of the mystery movie, the man directed both Zodiac and Se7en, and when you get down to it the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a ostensibly a murder-mystery. I’m glad to say for fans and newcomers alike that Fincher lives up to his reputation and has delivered a great adaptation of this immensely popular book that is both gripping and stylish.

And stylish it is. Fincher is firing on all guns here when it comes to the style of the movie. When one needs watch no further than the title sequence, a borderline music video for Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, to understand just what kind of tone and style Fincher is going for. Fincher’s style in the movie emphasizes start contrasts and duality. There is black and white, loud and quiet, warm and cold. These are the types of things his shots focus on, and every shot uses a different contrast to build the tone and mood of the movie, and it works very well. Fincher is at the top of his game here in his directing, but the style of the movie cannot be attributed to him alone.

Daniel Craig turns in one of his better performances as Mikael Blomkvist, an extremely talented reporter who is down and out on his luck. While he may be playing another shade of the Craig we have all come to know and love, he is also a very vulnerable character, a side to Craig we have seen little of during his career. Blomkvist is a character who is at the bottom of a deep rabbit hole: his life savings are drained, his reputation ruined, and his marriage a distant memory. He desperately latches onto the investigation of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger so that he can have some kind of redemption after his horrible humiliation. Despite this Blomkvist is still very confident and talented and Craig flows between confidence and vulnerability seamlessly. Despite this performance however, real praise should be given to Rooney Mara as nearly iconic Lisbeth Salander.

Rooney Mara is a newcomer to the world of acting and her existence has really has only come into the public consciousness after she was briefly in the Social Network. Mara takes a much larger role here, and one that is far more difficult to play. Lisbeth is a deranged and damaged character who suffers a terrible happening early in the movie. Scenes that Rooney needed to act in would have forced more seasoned actresses out of the role (the actor who played in the scene with her broke down after it and locked himself in his room for a day) but Mara commits completely. Being a gothy/punked up chick super-hacker with a mohawk and a leather jacket is a description of a character whom I would love to hate. As a character Lisbeth flirts with the line between ridiculous and serious. With a lesser actress at the helm Lisbeth would have been absolutely unlikeable and completely ridiculous. Luckily the character, and with her the movie, is saved by Rooney’s acting. She is completely unrecognizable as the girl leering angrily at Jesse Eisenberg from across a table at the beginning of the Social Network, she completely owns the role and becomes Lisbeth Salander, and for that I believe she at least deserves a nomination for best supporting actress. The other actors in the movie turn in good performances too, but Craig and Mara really carry the movie on their shoulders.

The final key to the style of the movie is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score, a 173 minute opus (the movie is only 158 minutes long mind you). Reznor and Ross put their all into the score, one that I feel surpasses even their efforts on the score for the Social Network. The music fits Fincher’s style perfectly, a primary reason Reznor, Ross, and Fincher have continued to collaborate. From the cover of Immigrant Song that plays during the opening title sequence, to the quiet strings playing in the background during the brief moments of peace, to the loud and NIN reminiscent garage rock which plays during the action scenes, the score just sets up every shot Fincher makes perfectly. Reznor and Ross have earned their Oscar again, if not at least a nomination and I look forward to seeing what their future collaborations will produce.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is by no means a perfect movie. Despite the incredible talent and commitment from the production team, the script could have used perhaps one more rewrite. Everything is there loud and clear, from the themes of violence and the relations between men and women to the complex and thickly woven mystery. It isn’t a bad screenplay, but it could have been shortened some. Certain parts of the movie drag on for a little too long, and overall the movie could have been ten or maybe fifteen minutes shorter. The third act comes off as particularly in need of some revision since a large number of significant events happen in a relatively short amount of time, making the various resolutions to the running storylines feel cheap. The ending is very close to the book I’m sure, but this is a case where it may have been better to make some deviations, if only to make the flow of the third act work a little better.

Despite the problems with the script the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is still a great movie. It features the best original soundtrack of the year, magnificent lead performances, and a style that only Fincher could produce.

Score: 4.5/5

I wonder if that touchdown counts.