Reel Views: Rooney Mara gets gritty (and pierced)

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2012)

Remember that girl from the first few minutes of The Social Network? The girlfriend who unceremoniously dumps Mark Zuckerberg, inspiring him to create Facebook? Well, if you didn't know that she was played by Rooney Mara, you undoubtedly would have watched the entire two hours and 40 minutes of Mara's latest flick, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and never known she was the same girl.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an American reboot of the 2009 Swedish film Mïn som hatar kvinnor, tells a complicated story of murder, deception and one dysfunctional Swedish family. Henrik Vanger, the family's aging patriarch, hires disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist to solve the murder of his niece more than 40 years ago, for which no one was ever found guilty. In return, Vanger promises to restore Blomkvist's journalistic reputation. When Blomkvist gets to work on the mystery of the unsolved murder, which could have only been committed by a member of the family, he discovers that a young hacker has been spying on him through his computer. He tracks down the antisocial yet brilliant Lisbeth Salander and enlists her help with his assignment.

The uncontested highlight of this flick is Mara as Lisbeth Salander. The character of Salander is dark, gritty and deeply troubled and Mara finds it in herself to bring all of Lisbeth's idiosyncrasies flawlessly to life. It must also be noted, and appreciated, that Mara got her ears, eyebrow, nose, lip and both nipples pierced for the film. Rarely has a performance of such a heavy character been pulled off so well by a relative newcomer.

Alongside Mara in the role of Mikael Blomkvist is James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Craig does an adequate job of playing this intellectual role, but proves much more entertaining during his few action-heavy scenes.

Hollywood heavyweight Christopher Plummer steps into the role of Henrik Vanger, and gives a heartfelt performance as a man mourning the loss of his niece. Swedish great Stellan Skarsgïrd plays the disturbing role of Martin Vanger, one of the family's many Nazi enthusiasts, with a creepiness that will get under your skin. Rounding out the A-list cast is Robin Wright as Mikael's love interest/co-worker Erika Berger.

The story of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is brilliant. It is truly one of the most engrossing, surprising and yet brutal stories of recent times. Yet there is something about director David Fincher's reboot of the story that doesn't quite do it justice. With absolutely no subtlety, the brutality of the story is thrust so hard into the face of the viewer that it is easy to become quickly desensitized to the atrocities. This rings particularly true during the scene in which Lisbeth crouches, bleeding in the shower.

All things considered, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is worth a watch, but don't get your hopes up too high if you were a fan of the original Swedish films.

Rating: 3 out of 5