It's common knowledge theses days, if a book grasps a large fan base - a movie version is soon to follow. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Lovely Bones, The Da Vinci Code, and The Twilight series are just a few of the more recent and popular titles. While these movies typically are massive blockbuster hits, they all too often fall short on the expectations of the reader after they've turned several hundred pages in a novel and now expect to see it all in a two hour movie. Being an avid reader, and obviously a movie buff, I have seen many book to movie adaptations and one film stands alone in my eyes as the best.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was the 2011 film directed by David Fincher that was based off the massively popular novel by Stieg Larsson. When journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) needs to lay low after having to reprint a story he published, he is contacted by the elder member of the Vanger family with a project he'd like Mikael's help with. To the rest of the world, Mikael is helping Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) write his memoirs. Henrik's true intention however is to have Mikael try and solve a forty year old mystery to the death of his beloved niece Harriot. With little to no evidence and everybody that was on the Vanger's island home the day Harriot disappeared a suspect, Mikael expects to find the same thing everybody in the past has found - nothing. However when Mikael believes he may have discovered some new evidence to the mystery, he finds Elisabeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to assist him. As the two dive deeper into the mystery and learn more than any other investigators have in the past, they find horrors that nobody could have imagined. Rooney Mara was honored with an academy award nomination for her portrayal of Elisabeth Salander.
As I mentioned before, movies based on books rarely live up to the readers expectations. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was made with great attention to detail and fellow readers of the novel should enjoy the film. Of course we are still talking about a very long and in depth novel being shrunk into a film in 158 minutes so naturally there are still some differences between the two. With that being said, I highly recommend the film to both the people who've read the fantastic novel and those who haven't. Here is the trailer to the film, hope you enjoy it!
Where and how did you learn to write so well?
ReplyDeleteI've had a couple of very influential teachers that helped shape my writing. One in particular continues to be a friend and mentor of mine. Writing is truly what I love to do - along with cooking and watching movies! Ha Ha. Thank you for such an encouraging comment!!
ReplyDeleteGreat review. I was never really sure what this movie or book was about until I read your review and watched the video. I think I'll check it out!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! Hope you enjoy the film!
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