The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - 7 stars out of 10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - 7 stars out of 10

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is just a little bit too much for my taste.  David Fincher really pushed it with his graphic portrayal of the first installment of the Millennium series, but he may have gone too far.  In a great movie, I can typically deal with one scene that is so graphic that it is impossible to enjoy; unfortunately, this film has four of them.  I can definitely understand the critical acclaim - it's impossible to deny the excellent performances by Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Rooney Mara (who has the identical birthday as me), and Stellan Skarsgard, but I don't know if they are worth watching this film.  The original Swedish version of this film is SO GOOD that they could go one of two ways with the American remake: 1. accept that it wouldn't be as good but give anti-subtitle Americans an opportunity to enjoy the story, or 2. go above and beyond the Swedish version in the realm of graphic content to make money from shock value.  The graphic sex, rape, and torture scenes were certainly above and beyond, and it's tough to give a film a good rating when you have to continually look away.  The story itself warrants a high rating as one of the most intriguing of our generation, and the film editing was excellent (as indicated by its Oscar), not to mention the great artistic vision.  Unfortunately, excellent acting and storytelling has been overshadowed by "Did you hear about the rape scene?"  I look forward to watching the original again.  I will never watch this version again.

For my review of the original 2009 Swedish version, see:
http://jonnysdailymoviereview.blogspot.com/2011/04/girl-with-dragon-tattoo-2009-10-stars.html