The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011): Hollywood Makes It Better

I don’t know exactly why I keep coming back for more. I devoured Steig Larssen’s book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels. I watched all three Swedish film adaptations of same.  In fact,  I saw Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) three times.  (“Men Who Hate Women” was the original title for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.)  So now we get the American remake, and I was compelled to rush out to see this, as well! I don’t hate women; I love women. I’ve even been described as uxorious. What’s going on here? And could I possibly enjoy seeing a remake of a mystery/thriller with which I am so familiar?

The Swedish films were pretty good, especially the first one, and they made a star of Noomi Rapace for her thoroughly convincing portrayal of the intriguing Lisbeth Salander. Ever since it was announced that an American movie was in the offing,  there’s been much handwringing by fans of Larssen’s Millenium Trilogy –books and movies - over how Hollywood would screw up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. You can stop your bemoaning. The new movie, directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig and relative newcomer Rooney Mara, is excellent, even better than the homegrown Swedish edition.

The basic story is about the unraveling of a forty year old mystery involving the disappearance and presumed murder of a 16 year old girl on a private island owned and inhabited by the Vangers, one of Sweden’s most wealthy and powerful (and dysfunctional) families. A disgraced, left leaning journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by the aged patriarch, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer),  to investigate and solve the musty mystery before he dies. Blomkvist is aided by a most unlikely co-investigator, a pierced, punk, aspergers-ish, autodidact, hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Along the way they uncover a series of horrific murders and ugly family secrets.

This was an A-list project from the start. Director Fincher (Fight Club [1999], The Social Network [2010]) is at the top of his form. The screenplay was adapted by Steven Zaillian, one of the best in the business (Awakenings [1990], Schindler’s List[1993], Gangs of New York [2002], Moneyball [2011], among others). The cinematographer, Jeff Cronenweth, worked with Fincher on Fight Club and Social Network. Their collaboration has resulted in a  thoroughly compelling, beautifully rendered film.  The  narrative has been honed so that it is easier to follow than in the Swedish product, without any sacrifice of the tension or the mystery. Some of the clunky techno aspects of the novel have been updated and tidied up so they make sense and feel contemporary in 2011. And, the plot has been tightened up in ways that make cinematic sense, although Larssen purists may complain just because there are differences.

One example of this has to do with how a mysterious (and crucial) list of initials and numbers in the missing girl’s diary gets deciphered. In the book and the Swedish film, this process involves some tedious procedural work by Blomqvist and Salandar – poring over old newspapers, driving around the country to dig out old police files and interview people, along with a drawn out inductive and deductive reasoning process. In the current picture, the revelations are uncovered by Salander alone, and a lot of her investigation is off camera – we see just enough to figure out how she done it. This works to everyone’s advantage (the movie is 158 minutes as it is).

The Lisbeth Salander character is just a great invention, and her quirky looks and behavior made the book and make the movies so interesting. Noomi Rapace was absolutely terrific in this role in the Swedish films -  a dark, guarded,  troubled spirit, yet brilliant, clever and resourceful. She was physically slight, yet like a coiled spring, and a surprisingly dangerous person to mess with. As portrayed by Rooney Mara, she has many of the same characteristics (tattoo included), yet seems to become a bit more human along the way. (Or maybe I’m just bringing more to the table this time around.) In any event, Mara is a believable Lisbeth.  

Daniel Craig is fine as Mikael, stronger, more sure-footed (and better looking) than was Michael Nyqvist in the Swedish films. Gone is the impervious tough guy character he evokes as James Bond. Here he is intrepid, but also thoughtful and vulnerable. Mikael’s relationship with his co-editor Erika Berger (Robin Wright), omitted from the earlier version, is elegantly referenced here, and I suspect this will pay dividends in the sequels, in which Mikael’s journalism career resumes. Stellan Skarsgard as Martin Vanger is also very effective. The rest of the ensemble, portraying the other Vangers, and a very evil lawyer,  is fine as well – there is not a weak performance among them.

I also have to draw attention to the fabulously moody and subversive (but not hummable) soundtrack by Trent Reznor (of 9 Inch Nails fame) and Atticus Ross. This is one of those films where the music/soundscape is integral to the creation of mood and emotion. Excellent

My only gripe about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the opening credits, which are backed by a creepy and disturbingly graphic animation that, in retrospect, relates to the darker themes of the story, but stylistically has nothing to do with the film that follows.

Well worth a trip to your local screening room. Yes, even if you’ve read the book and/or saw the subtitled version.

Warning: There are a few disturbing bits in this film. They are necessary, relatively brief and well handled. I won’t describe further, but if this concerns you, ask someone who’s seen it.

In current release.

Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011): Cruise In Overdrive

How do these aging actors do it?  Tough guy action films, I mean. Sly Stallone (65), Liam Neeson (59), Bruce Willis (56), Nic Cage (pushing 50), among others,  are all still playing the stalwart macho hero. And now, here comes Tom Cruise in his fourth go round as Ethan Hunt, leader of a crack IMF (Impossible Missions Force) team, at age 49. Now I’m not suggesting that Cruise is old, certainly not from my vantage point (age 62). I am wondering at what point does casting of a middle aged or older fellow in such roles strain credulity too much? [See my comments on Neeson’s Unknown (2011).] The good news is that Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (a.k.a. M.I.4) is a terrific movie, and Cruise’s tough guy persona carries the film.

Gone is the boyish grin and youthful charm. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is taut, rugged, clearly in charge, and all business. His body is buff and his face is chiseled. He does look older, mostly in a good way; but I couldn’t help noticing as he was doing his classic Cruise run (chasing a bad guy) that he was pressing a bit, and I couldn’t help imagining how brutal his exercise regime must be these days. (One odd effect of the new Cruise look is that his nose seems bigger, more prominent, in a weird sort of way, especially in extreme close ups, of which there are several in M.I.3. Anyone else notice this?)

Cruise (who also has produced all of these films) has aided his M.I. career by hiring terrific directors: Brian de Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, and now Brad Bird. Bird was a bit of a gamble in that his entire career has been directing/supervising animated material, most recently at Pixar, where he helmed The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007). Perhaps, Cruise noticed how beautifully the action moved and flowed in those projects, and how well the stories were constructed. At any rate, the gamble paid off, because the complicated story in M.I.4, involving stolen Russian launch codes and a terrorist plot to launch a nuclear missile  strike at the US, is well told, and moves along deftly with thrilling action sequences and just the right touch of humor.

Cruise and Bird are helped by an outstanding supporting cast. The other members of Ethan’s M.I. team, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and JeremyRenner have distinct personas and skills. Pegg has had a great 2011, appearing in the comedy Paul, voicing the character of Det. Thomson (or is it Thompson?) in Tintin, and now Benjy, the somewhat timorous techie guy on the team. Patton plays the girl on the team, and what a girl: she’s beautiful, sexy, forthright and tough as nails when called for – as in the all too brief girl-fight scene with the ruthless assassin Sabine Moreau (French actress LéaSeydoux). Renner’s character is inadvertently drawn into the team. He is analytical, intense, loyal, funny and human. His performance is a revelation because he plays an ordinary guy, in contrast to the nut jobs I’d seen him play in The Hurt Locker (2008) and The Town  (2010). The ensemble also includes Michael Nyqvist as the bad guy, Hendricks, and the uncredited Tom Wilkinson (as the IMF Secretary) and Michelle Monaghan, in cameo reprise of her role as Ethan’s girlfriend/wife Julia.

I won’t bore you with a plot outline. If you like action pictures, you’ll want to see this one. It’s a big screen kind of movie, so don’t wait for the DVD.

In theaters.

My Week With Marilyn (2011): Viva Monroe, Viva Williams

Let me start out with the most salient observation: Michelle Williams just nails her role as Marilyn Monroe. I don’t mean that she looks just like her – she doesn’t, although the makeup department does a hell of a job engineering a pretty good facsimile. But watching Williams here, you forget you’re not watching the real Marilyn.  Her Monroe is sexy, of course, and also seductive, flirtatious, magnetic, glamorous and manipulative. At the same time, she is needy, insecure, petulant, childish.

Marilyn Monroe is the most iconic of movie stars. From about 1953 until her death, she was MM, the “blonde bombshell”, a unique combination of sex and innocence, of bimbo and girl next door. She was everyman’s fantasy girl. She was Hugh Hefner’s first ever centerfold. She parlayed this image into fame and fortune, but not happiness. Her shocking death by apparent suicide in 1962  enhanced her mythic status, while at the same time, sparked an industry of revelation about her life and her liaisons, and a lot of soul searching about her complicated personality, the meaning of her death, America’s contradictory  attitudes and expectations about women, and so forth.  Williams’ accomplishment in My Week With Marilyn is how she transforms the icon into a virtual flesh and blood human creature, an amalgam of the mythic star and the frightened Norma Jean. This feat alone is a strong recommendation to see this picture.

There is a small sub-genre of the “coming of age” picture that examines a young person’s first scary or daunting, yet life-changing experience in the entertainment industry - typically involving a confrontation with a powerful,  larger-than-life figure: an actor (e.g. the fictional Alan Swann, played by the legendary Peter O’Toole in My Favorite Year (1982)), or a director (e.g. Orson Welles, magnificently portrayed by Christian McKay  in Me and Orson Welles (2008)), or a rock star, painter, etc.  The events unfold through the eyes and feelings of the young protagonist; invariably there’s a subsidiary romantic angle also, but the main event is the angsty relationship between the kid and the celebrity.

My Week With Marilyn, based on a true story by Colin Clark,  falls into this category, although there are a couple of twists to the formula: First, Colin (Eddie Redmayne), our young protagonist, pairs up with not one, but two iconic superstars:  the brilliant, lionized actor/director Sir Lawrence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and  Marilyn Monroe. Second, the love story, i.e. Colin’s growing infatuation with the superstar Monroe, is not only a love story, of sorts, but it is also the central event that provides a life lesson to the young man and is, of course,  the primary focus of the movie.

It is 1957.  Colin, through comical perseverance and family connections, has managed to finagle himself a job as 3^rd Assistant Director (i.e. go-fer) on the set of Olivier’s next movie, The Prince and theShowgirl. Olivier has cast the international sex symbol Marilyn Monroe as  “the showgirl” to put a bit of sizzle back in his life - as if being married to Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormand ) wasn’t exciting enough. Monroe was a superstar by this time, with a resume including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry A Millionaire (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), and most recently, Bus Stop (1956). She attracts a crowd wherever she goes, and both loves and hates the attention.

Monroe comes to rehearsal with a retinue that includes her new (third) husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, her acting coach, her manager, a bodyguard, etc. She is more than a little nervous to be directed by and costarring with the great Olivier. But their styles couldn’t be more different.  Monroe, having recently studied  the Method with Lee Strasberg, believes acting requires inquiry into her character’s motivation (although the film they are shooting is a farce).  Monroe’s fragile psyche needs to be treated with acceptance, understanding,  praise, and love. Olivier is not that sort. He merely expects an actor to be on time, to know her lines, to take direction - in short, to be a professional.

While Branagh’s Olivier froths with frustration, Williams’ Monroe is paralyzed with anxiety. She frets, she can’t get out of bed.  She needs a friend; she needs comforting. And therein lies Colin’s little story.

My Week With Marilyn is a sweet, funny little movie, and very well acted up and down the cast.  Branagh gives us a volatile, and surprisingly sympathetic Sir Larry, one of his most convincing recent performances. Also featured, in smaller roles, are Michael Kitchen (of Foyle’s War fame); JudyDench (always wonderful); the familiar, yet under-rated Phillip Jackson, as Monroe’s dour bodyguard; Ormond, as the slightly faded, but still intriguing Vivien Leigh; and Emma Watson, as Lucy, a wardrobe girl of interest to Colin, until that platinum blonde walks by. The jury is still out as to whether Watson [Hermione in the Harry Potter series] can actually act; she does a just passable job here.

I kind of liked Eddie Redmayne as Colin. I mean I can’t really fault his performance. But Colin’s story and Redmayne’s performance  were so overwhelmed by the supernova character that was Marilyn Monroe and the  standout acting of Michelle Williams, that I hardly noticed him.

This movie is quite entertaining, and Williams’ performance may well win her an Oscar and/or Golden Globe in the coming months, so you may want to catch it on the big screen; but it also will do just fine on your home  screen, when the DVD is released, if you care to wait.

In theaters.

Incidentally, The Prince and The Showgirl(1957), with the real Marilyn and Olivier is available on DVD from Netflix and elsewhere.

The General (1998) and The Guard (2011): Hail Brendan Gleeson

These two films starring the wonderful Irish actor, BrendanGleeson, are  both crime films about a couple of antiauthoritarian mavericks, one a crime lord and one a cop. In 1998’s The General, Gleeson plays Martin Cahill, in a biopic about the notorious Dublin gang leader, who, rising from very humble beginnings,  became something of a Robin Hood folk hero in the 80’s and early 90’s for his ability to outwit, and even mock, the police while stealing from the wealthy (no evidence he gave to the poor, however). In the recent movie, The Guard, Gleeson plays Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a member of the Garda (i.e. a cop) in a small coastal town, who gets caught up, against his will,  in an investigation of international drug smuggling,  paired with an African-American FBI agent (Don Cheadle), with characteristic "buddy cop movie" results.

Gleeson has appeared in many, many films, mostly in supporting roles, over the years. Examples include Into the West (1992), Gangs of New York (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), Troy (2004), and most recently, several of the Harry Potter films, in which he played a memorable ‘Mad Eye‘ Moody. In 2008 he shared the lead in Martin McDonagh's In Bruges with Colin Farrell, but despite a fine performance, received less attention than his costar. In The General and The Guard, Gleeson is definitely the center of attention and in each his performance is riveting.

I confess that I love the mug on this guy, which juxtaposes an  impish boyishness and a mature manliness. That, and Gleeson’s ability to express his character's thoughts and emotions subtly and unmistakably – through a wink or squint of his eye, a twitch of his mouth, a move of his eyebrow or whatever works. Gleeson can show us an infectious smile and in the next moment a stalwart, grim resolve. In so doing, we feel we know this guy, his character, in a way that dialogue or action alone could never convey. His amazing physiognomy sits atop a rather large, lumpish, definitely non-svelte body, all of which somehow adds to the attraction.

The General starts off with Cahill’s assassination by an IRA gunman, in front of his home in 1994 at age 45. The rest of the movie traces his life and career leading up to that point, starting with his youthful exploits, stealing food for his family, flipping off the chasing constable who cannot catch him, and highlighting some of his most famous and notorious exploits. Cahill is depicted as a guy who cannot abide constraints or authority, a freedom loving man, who nonetheless becomes less and less free the more successful he becomes. In the able hands of veteran director John Boorman (Deliverance, Hope and Glory, Excalibur), the film gives us a multidimensional picture  of a complex guy:  ruthless and cunning crime boss, loving father, man of the people, husband, hunted man, tough guy and sensitive guy.

Along the way we catch glimpses of the people  in Cahill’s world: Inspector Ned Kenny, the frustrated cop who understands him, but can’t catch him (well played by Jon Voight), his best friend Noel (Adrian Dunbar), the various characters in his gang of thieves, his supportive wife, Frances (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and her sister - and Cahill’s alternate ‘wife’ - Tina (Angeline Ball). Cahill seemed to enjoy his celebrity, but he famously shielded his face with his hand whenever cameras may have been present. This happens frequently in the movie, setting up an interesting challenge for the actor, which Gleeson meets quite successfully.

The Guard is a fictional work, but its protagonist is a real, flesh and blood character. Sergeant Jerry Boyle likes to drink, consort with whores, subvert authority, and take care of crime  in his coastal town according to his own idiosyncratic sense of what’s important and what’s not. He is unmarried, and seemingly uninterested in deep relationships, with women or with men. He is close with his mother (beautifully played by Fionnula Flanagan), but she is dying. He accepts the human condition with humor and resignation. Live and let live is his philosophy. Until, that is, an international drug trafficking operation lands on his shore, a neighbor and a colleague get killed (“mordurred”), and FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) demands his help.

Taking orders is not really Jerry’s thing.  Being commandeered by a sophisticated, rule-bound, uptight, know-it-all American  cop really gets his goat. That this cop is black is like hot sauce on his burrito. What starts as a lovely character study evolves into, first, an odd-couple comedy and then into a bit of action thriller. Writer and first time director John Michael McDonagh (brother of playwright/screenwriter Martin McDonough) makes all of this come together in an entertaining package.  Gleeson makes this role his own, in perhaps the best performance of his career. His Jerry Boyle is annoying, funny, endearing, and, at his core, a man with a clear sense of self. Cheadle (Devil in a Blue Dress, Hotel Rwanda, Crash, etc) is always good; here, he plays a straight man to Gleeson, but he gives his character a palpaple integrity, and shows us his (and our) gradually developing recognition of Jerry Boyle’s hidden depths.

The General and The Guard are both excellent films, which I wholeheartedly recommend. (The recommendation comes with a proviso: if you are not Irish, you may have some difficulty catching all of the dialogue. If you have a DVD, you may want to engage the English subtitles. Without subtitles, I probably only clearly “got” about 50% of the dialogue in The General. I did a little better with The Guard, thanks to Cheadle’s presence, but conversations between the Irish were still tough. Even so, I enjoyed both movies.)

The General is available on Netflix streaming and DVD, Amazon instant video, and Hulu Plus. The Guard will be available on DVD and Blue-ray through Netflix on January 3, 2012

Hugo (2011): Scorsese's Steam Punk Family Movie

Martin Scorsese, esteemed director of markedly adult, often violent dramas (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, The Departed, etc.) and the occasional documentary (The Last Waltz, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, My Voyage to Italy, etc.), has, for the first time, made a children’s/family film, just in time for the holidays, and in 3-D no less! Hugo is a warm, engaging, imaginatively realized, perhaps even inspiring, work, clearly a labor of love by the director. It is a film best seen on the big screen if possible, preferably in 3-D – which is used beautifully here – and well worth your precious ducats for the experience.

Hugo offers a rich visual experience from the opening frames, as the camera swoops over 1930 Paris into busy Montparnasse railway station, through the crowds and cafés, down the platform, past the steaming trains and into the giant gears of a large station clock, behind which is the lair of our 12-year-old protagonist, the namesake of this movie. Hugo (AsaButterfield) is an orphan, living behind the walls of the train station, keeping the clocks wound, and tinkering with, trying to fix a mysterious automaton (kind of a robot) that his deceased father (briefly played in a sweet cameo by Jude law), a clockmaker/mechanic, rescued from obscurity in a museum. (Sounds complicated, but it's not.)

Hugo's environment is decidedly steam punk. Gears, great and small are revolving, puffs of steam abound, evocative of the factory in Chaplin’s Modern Times. Then, there are the interlocking gears of Paris itself, of the trains, and of the story.

Hugo’s is a lonely life. He peers down on the station denizens, watching their rituals, noticing little human vignettes playing out before his eyes, in pantomime, for he is too far away to listen in on conversations. Through this device, Scorsese pays tribute to the power of silent films. Especially touching, is a tentative love affair between a middle-aged gentleman (Richard Griffiths) and a café lady (Frances de la Tour). There is also a cute budding relationship between the station inspector (policeman) and a flower seller (Emily Mortimer).

Hugo is required to live by his wits, stealing food and the occasional spare parts for his "work". This puts him at odds with the station inspector (humorously yet menacingly played by Sasha Baron Cohen), who is out to nab him, adding an element of hide and seek to this movie’s recipe. The spare parts, gears, etc. that Hugo needs come from a magic store/toy store in the station, and this brings him into conflict with the store's owner, Papa George (Ben Kingsley, in a great, nuanced performance). On the plus side, Papa George has a 12-year-old ward, Isabel (Chloe Grace Moretz) who becomes Hugo's friend. Adventures and intrigue ensue. Along the way, Hugo learns and grows, and Scorsese gets to embellish his themes.

These include the power of dreams, the satisfaction of meaningful work/purpose, and, most especially the wondrous joy of film itself, and the importance of appreciating and preserving film history. Central to the story is the life and work of Georges Méliès, an early film pioneer, one of the first great producer/directors, sometimes known as the "father of special effects," because he specialized in fantasy and science fiction, virtually inventing those genres. Several of Méliès works are featured in Hugo, most prominently his most famous picture: A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) (1902) in which a spaceship lands smack in the face of the man in the moon! Méliès made over 500 films between 1896 and 1914, when his output suddenly ceased. Why this happened is one of the mysteries central to the plot in Hugo. (It is not historically accurate but makes for a good story.)

Scorsese also features clips from other classic silents, including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. And, he gets to show us how state-of-the-art filmmaking, in the hands of a master, can advance the same basic thrills provided in those early films. For example, there is a wonderful moment in which we get to see a great train come off the rails and charge through the crowded station, out into the street. Scorsese loves film and film history. He has written about it. He is made two lengthy documentaries on the subject (one about American film, the other about his love for Italian cinema). Among other things, Hugo is a loving homage to the foundations of and power of cinema.

The cinematography, by Robert Richardson (who has previously worked with Scorsese on a number of films, including Casino, The Aviator, And Shutter Island), is rich, atmospheric, and well attuned to the nuances of the story. The depictions of 1930 Paris from high above are magical. As noted, the steam punk interiors of the station are moody and effective. There is a re-creation of Méliès’ studio and the staging of his films that is spot on brilliant. There are also nods to Orson Welles, Terry Gilliam, and countless others. The 3-D is used in furtherance of mood and story, further establishing that this technology is coming of age (before our eyes, so to speak).

The acting by all of the principals and most of the secondary players is excellent throughout.  In addition to those already discussed, Christopher Lee, as a kindly librarian, and Helen McCrory, as Mrs. Méliès, are fun to watch

Don't let the label of "family film" deter you: anyone who loves movies should enjoy Hugo, regardless of age. And, given its length (129 minutes) and pace, this movie may not be suitable for children under 11 or 12.

In wide release.