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Fincher got his start doing FX on Return of the Jedi and after some video work he got hired to try to bail Alien 3 out of the mess the production had fallen into. He partially succeeded and Alien 3 is not the disaster some people say it is. After A3 came the creepy and stylish serial killer drama Seven whose titles alone are better than most films. Then came The Game which was a journeyman effort about Michael Douglas having a mid life crisis and falling into a paranoid conspiracy. In 1999 Fincher's reputation was sealed with the fantastic Fight Club - a film about what it means to be a man at the close of the twentieth century. If you haven't seen Fight Club you are not a hetereosexual white male 20 - 40 living in the Western World. Fincher's next film was Panic Room which I didn't care for but I thought Zodiac (the true story of the hunt for the Zodiac killer) was a return to form if not quite in the same league as Seven.
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I have not seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but I have to admit that it doesn't really seem like my cup of tea at all: Fincher is not Steven Spielberg and shouldn't try to be. In fact even Steven Spielberg shouldn't try to be Steven Spielberg unless its the Steven Spielberg who made Jaws. I saw The Social Network on a plane last year and I felt that it didn't really hang together - but for that I blame Aaron Sorkin's script which was full of ad hominem stuff, non sequitors and a boring court room setting that wasn't even in a court room. (Incidentally they gave Sorkin an Oscar for this script so what do I know).
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Which brings me to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I had 4 major problems with the book: 1) As a locked room mystery it didn't work because we were not given all the information. 2) Cally Blomqvist's character seemed like nothing more than a middle aged male's wish fulfillment fantasy 3) Larsson wanted to have his cake and eat it too: deploring violence against women but giving us lots of it in lurid sadomasochistic detail. 4) The bad prose, extreme length and heavy handed cliches made the book pretty dull (I give Larsson a pass on this one because if he had lived the novel would have been given a tighter edit).
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From the opening titles of Fincher's Dragon Tattoo it becomes clear that we are not in Sweden but in that dark, weird, edgy, introverted territory that should be known as Finchlandia. The palate is muted and the furtive camera work makes even a pristine snow field seem sinister. The acting is low key but believable and always engrossing and the story has been tightened into an economical three acts. I'm not a fan of Daniel Craig but he is reasonably effective here and the actress playing Lisbeth is convincing. But for me the vibe is the star in this flick. Some of the mood seems to have been cribbed from Let The Right One In which is fine by me because I loved that creepy picture. With the right material Fincher is really able to show off his technical ability and his skill at directing actors. As the film played out I found myself forgetting the rather silly book and all the other baggage I had with Dragon Tattoo and instead I found myself falling into the story. The hooks went in and I didn't mind them being in. Incredibly this Hollywood remake of a Swedish film of a dodgy novel is Fincher's best movie in some time and although it is no masterpiece (and far too luridly violent) it is a considerable improvement over its source material.
48 comments:
I haven't seen the movie and I'm not sure if I will, so I can't comment there.
I agree with everything you said about the book, with one exception, Number 4. All your criticisms are dead on, though their degree makes me wonder how much editing could have saved it. At some point the writer has to bear responsibility for his own soul-sucking ineptitude. My comment when I read it a few years back was that Larsen's greatest talent was knowing how to spend too much time on things that didn't deserve it, and not enough on things that deserved more.
True, an editor can fix much of that, but at some point I'd think the editor would push back to the author and say, "This needs work."
This is the most overrated book I have ever read. More overrated than THE DA VINCI CODE, which at least was what everyone said it would be.
I've read the book, and seen the Swedish movie version. I actually don't make it to see movies often, and so likely won't see this one.
I liked the book, which entertained me. I agree with your list of problems, though. I do think Lisbeth Salander is a very interesting character.
Did you know that Fincher is directing a remake of House of Cards? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/
It's funny, but I don't think I've ever seen a Davis Fincher movie. He doesn't really sound like my kind of thing.
The truly disappointing locked room aspect of it doesn't seem to bother most people much, but that more than any of the other problems was what let me down the most. I actually didn't mind the information overload that much.
I was talking to a friend at work yesterday about a book which I guess I'll leave nameless for now, saying that though a bestseller, it had some quite unconvincing plot points. She said, I blame The Kiterunner, which we both think had a great opening and got progressively more wretched as it went along.
We thought we might open a business called ______ and Graham, Plot Flaw Detectives: "Making your book better and thereby ensuring that it will never become a bestseller".
Adrian,
Gwyneth may be talented, but she does seem a simpering, overprivileged drip.
Your Larsson critique nails it. E. McNamee covers violence in a much more honorable way - rarely graphic, and often from the victim's perspective. Like in an early ritual murder/Loyalist pub scene in Resurrection Man, where the violence is relayed through the dialogue of the killers, who are cracking jokes.
I thought the Fincher movie was beautifully made. Most of the cast created fully realized characters, despite the flimsy source material. But I don't need to see something like it again. Both the book and the movie would've been more effective if the scenes of sexual violence had been left to our imaginations.
Gee, I hope my copy of TCCG comes soon!
I was also pretty ticked that they killed off Hicks and Newt at the start of Alien 3 - what, we are now supposed to worry about the fate of a bunch of career criminals?
But I remember reading an interview with Michael Biehn - apparently he got told Fincher off and got paid just for briefly using his visage in the film.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50837
I must say I am a big fan of Zodiac, underwhelmed with the Dragon Tattoo though.
Lately I've been telling people that one of the great things about being in your fifties is that you aren't in a sought-after demographic anymore - no one panders to you. It also, apparently, explains why I haven't seen Fight Club (and feel no need to).
I also haven't read any of The Girl With.... books and again don't really feel a need to - I'm against violence against anyone and so far nothing has said those books have anything much to say about violence against women other than it's terrible. Oh, and there's plenty of graphic descriptions of it. Maybe Death Wish should have gotten an Oscar....
"Larsson wanted to have his cake and eat it too: deploring violence against women but giving us lots of it in lurid sadomasochistic detail."
Yes, indeed, which is also what's wrong with local news in the USA today.
Re: Let The Right One In
The American version was one of my best movies of the year. Not to say that it was without flaw.
The problem I have with a lot of books and movies is that there is not enough recalcitrance (a la Austin Wright's study of AS I LAY DYING: Faulkner, the Professors, and Recalcitrance).
We don't want loose ends but it is far better to have a loose end than a non sequitur. Give us the epilogue to BLOOD MERIDIAN and let us draw the connections to the rest of the text ourselves. Far better than the cloyed sentimental end to, say, COWBOYS AND ALIENS.
We need recalcitrance in art. Without it, there is no mirror, no magic, no timelessness.
Adrian, this is spooky man, my wife is about one third of the way through Dragon Tattoo right now and basically had that exact analysis on Sunday night.
I mentioned it to a work colleague who went apoplectic, in the way that community will sometimes make people do, when I suggested I could've edited 300 pages out of it without hurting the plot much.
I mentioned to him that some of the greatest authors -- Steinbeck, Styron, Orwell -- routinely wrote novels of under 300 pages.
It's also funny that people who loved the book rave about the movies .... even though a 160-page script sure meant cutting that original material a ton.
Good post.
Dana
I didnt get to the Da Vinci Code but I did listen to the Lost Symbol as an audiobook. What I couldnt get past was Dan Brown's need to explain everything he encountered: carpets, cars, the making of coffee. If I'd been an editor I would have cut the hell out of that stuff, but apparently thats what the people want.
Speedskater
Yeah Lisbeth saved the novel for me. A good character. She's not a hacker but basically a fairy able to do magic.
What also saved the book for me was the Swedish prison sequence. It seemed like a lovely place to unwind for a while. Like a spartan northern spa.
seana
No, I'm not sure you'd like Fincher. Although you'll probably catch The Social Network on network TV next year.
The locked room mystery was such a cheat it was ridiculous. And the central premise that someone would escape from that situation and not send her uncle so much as a postcard in 40 years (no postcards but crazily elaborate flowers) is mental.
Kate
Have you been to Gwyneth's website Goop? You can get advice there on what presents to get your nanny for her birthday and which day spa in the Upper East Side provides the best massages. Its fascinating stuff.
Although I pity anyone who has to wake up next to Chris Martin every morning.
Matt
There were many many other ways to do that movie without ruining the mythology by killing Newt and Hicks. I didnt care about any of the characters after that.
In fact I prefer to see Alien3 as non canonical and just a dream Ripley had in hypersleep.
John
I saw an interview with Daniel Craig where he said that the violence was very necessary so that we could understand the darkness at the heart of the story. What a load of baloney. The violence was completely unnecessary. A few jump cuts would have been quite sufficient. Even Tarantino cut away from the torture in the ear cutting scene. He knew that our imaginations could do the rest.
Richard
I'm glad you mentioned the ending of Blood Meridian and very cleverly referenced Cowboys and Aliens in the next line, that also was my interpretation of that strange epilogue.
I hate it when they do promos for the local news that go like this: "This simple tip could save your life...tonight at 10 on Fox 8". If they really cared about their viewers they would tell us the simple tip now.
LH
I could certainly have edited Dragon Tattoo better than his English language editors have done. I would have lost about 100 pages, almost all the violence, I would have dropped one or two clues that would assist the reader, I would have cut the stereotyping about "fat stupid Americans" etc. and I would have cut the embarrassing Australian epilogue.
I also would have put the apostrophe in the right place in the book title The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.
And speaking of apostrophes did you see the google doodle today:
google.com
shouldn't it be wan brothers' not wan brother's.
Oh, I should have mentioned this earlier or on the main article, but I suppose this can be an extra for people who actually read comment threads:
I've got a piece in Spinetingler Magazine about an incident in Cold Cold Ground that happened in real life and also made it into the novel.
time for me to wade on in...
Yeah se7en blew me away with tight editing, gloomy settings and abrasive s/track
fight club...never thought that book could be made into a flick but fincher did it
the game...wow...not one of his best known but what a rollicking ride that was..
panic room....hmmm..too many plot inconsistencies...it moved too slowly and characters were not believable..
social network...i think he may have had a brain fart with that one...didnt do it for me either
Dragon...yep...seemed to have really borrowed heavily from let the right one in which i loved...i agree...i figure he cold only work with what he had which was a book that didn't really add up...
Just got my copy of TCCG! Couldn't be happier. The Nordic writers will have to wait.
Adrian - I haven't checked out her website, but I work at a supermarket, and Gwyneth's often on the covers of the glossies we sell, looking exhausted, as if wearing haute couture was a colossal strain. We hear music all day, and when it's not Phil Collins, it's Coldplay. I think she and Chris deserve each other.
How sick am I for checking out Baron Ian von Paisley's website instead of GOOP? Thousands of people have signed his guest book, many of them Americans, including former Catholics, some of them with Gaelic-sounding surnames. I can't believe the guy's still around. Is he still a blowhard, or has he mellowed?
Thanks much for posting the link to the Spinetingler piece. I liked reading that, esp. making the connection to the similar story in TCCG.
Well, no wonder you don't like Genesis....
Hadn't read the book or seen the Swedish film and only went along to see it as it's a Fincher film. He does a solid job but the story isn't strong enough to carry a film of that bum numbing length. The coda with the disguise and trip abroad looks as if it belonged to another film and was fairly pointless. Daniel Craig was bloody awful and seemed to think that taking his specs on and off, wearing them at ludicrous angles, constituted acting. Rooney Mara was excellent and easily the best thing in a disappointing film.
That was great background on the mercury tilt. I really liked that bit in the book about how important procedure is. The story, or actually both stories bring the point home.
I learned that point in the 89 earthquake here. I think in emergency situations, the brain goes pretty much straight to what it's been trained to do, rather than coming up with new innovations.
John, as the tail end of the Baby Boom, fifty something is still eminently panderable as a demographic.
I did see Panic Room, come to think of it. I can only watch those kind of shows on television, where I mute the volume of the dramatic music at will.
Dan
Let the right one in was terrific wasn't it? That swimming pool scene will stay with me for a long long time...Yikes.
Kate
Ian Paisley rehabilitated himself in the last few years by entering into a power sharing agreement with Sinn Fein that has brought peace to Northern Ireland. So a pretty disgraceful past as a sectarian rabble rouser, but in the end, a peacemaker.
The Paltrow-Martin house must be the most precious place in the world. Lots of hand made wooden toys I'll bet.
Speedskater
Yeah and there were many many incidents that didnt make it into the book, like the time I was knocked down by a police Land Rover in a hit and run. I was going to have Duffy accidentally run someone over but it didnt work.
Remy
Four stars? Really? You're sticking with that? In traditional arithemtic rounding 4.5 gets rounded to the next highest whole number...I'm just sayin....
I found Craig less annoying than normal but thats not much of a compliment because I find him very annoying in films and real life.
Seana
And it defied the Chekovian theory about the gun on the stage didn't it?
John
I do like Peter Gabriel though if that counts for anything.
I see that Google has now fixed the placement of the apostrophe in their doodle. They probably had about ten million people emailing them.
Remy - you're right; Rooney Mara was excellent.
I'd never seen Daniel Craig act before. I did not need to see him in his undershorts. I'm not a prude; just someone who generally wishes people of my skin tone would keep their clothes on.
Adrian, I know this is corny; but one kind of inspiring thing about NI is the number of fairly sketchy individuals who have maybe redeemed themselves.
What was Let the Right One In about, and was it based on a novel?
Adrian,
Aside from the violence ... the mundanity! He goes to a store and buys shirts and socks ... to illustrate that it's cold in Sweden. A car backs over her favorite bag and we get 1,500 words on it.
Yeesh. Anyone remember when Dick Francis' novels doubled in size, basically overnight? Still good writing, still enjoyable, just unnecessarily bloody long.
I believe the gun was fired, though--just not by the protagonist.
Don't know what Chekhov would have to say about that.
TCCG is pretty respectful of Chekhov I'd say.
Adrian,
Quick question for you. In the incident at Duffy's home, there is a shout of "Gusty". I inferred this was meant to be Gusty Spence. Is that correct?
Kate
Let the right one in is about vampire and was based on an excellent novel.
I hope they have redeemed themselves . In 1998-1999 they were all released from prison under the Good Friday Agreement. 200 or 300 convicted killers walking the streets.
LH
Same thing happened with Harry Potter. She just refused to be edited after a certain point. I'm sure the diehard fans didnt notice.
Seana
Oh yeah that gun. Yeah the gun was fired but the mercury tilt bomb never went off.
Remy
I'll tell you exactly what happened. Up until the final draft (i.e. the galley proof) I had all the names of all the real people in the novel, but in that draft I finally changed the names to fictional ones. A few I kept in: George Seawright etc. because they had been conveniently assassinated in the meantime. Gusty might have been one of those names I just decided to leave as is, even though Spence would never have been on a low level vigilante raid like that.
I wouldn't want to watch a film that you've edited Adrian. Cut all the violence? I like violence in films. It entertains me. Ive seen Played with Fire and it was so dull, what it neeed was more violence. Oh yeah and more naked men, not sweaty naked lesbians. There, i've said it.
Rambo First Blood was my favourite film as a child. I wanted to be Rambo. Still do.
Frankie
I dont care what the context is I dont think any film could be improved by cutting the sweaty naked lesbians, but maybe thats just me.
Some day they'll film an Angela Carter novel and we'll both be happy.
Your piece over at Spinetingler really put an exlanation point on that topic. I still cringe when I think about the IRA napalm. My buddy showed me pics of the July 12bonfires (before & after) in 2010. Insane how big they are. His family X-mas card was of him, wife, and kids standing in front of one. The Republican flag was at the top of the pile in one of the before photos :)
I liked it very much. The earlier version was good but too slow for me and I couldn't start the book.
I have no problems with violence in films because it's actors pretending and I've known that since I was a kid.
I liked Panic Room but I really like the first two Home Alone films, too.
I haven't seen the Fincher TGWTDT, only the three Swedish films. I liked them, although I could have done without some of the violence.
Since I watched them as dvd's, I just fastforwarded through some of the violence. Admittedly, the violence was harder to take on film than in the books, where I did skip or speedread through those sections.
I got the points anyway. But the movies were so brutal, I had to turn away sometimes.
I liked the books, but not because of the writing style, because of the story and Lizbeth Salander. And there was the theme that with all the abuse she had suffered for years, she was still alive and able to defend herself. And also that no one in the government at any level helped her. It was good to show that.
And what validated the series for me in the end was that the third book, despite the misplaced apostrophe, got Salander justice. And it was largely women characters who achieved this, seven women I counted at the time I read it, and they did it without violence.
I'm glad Rooney Mara is good. After seeing the Swedish movies, I thought no one could play this role as well as Noomi Rapace, who was Salander as David Suchet is Poirot. Glad Mara is good, too.
Fincher didn't actually write Alien 3, did he?
I thought the Millenium Trilogy was entertaining, mostly due to the character of Lisbeth.
As for the movie version, Fincher runs hot and cold, and I can't imagine a better Lisbeth than Rapace. BUT, anyone who can tackle a topic like Fight Club as deftly as Fincher did deserves the benefit of the doubt. So, I will see it eventually.
I enjoyed the Millenium Trilogy; Salandar was the main reason--in both books and movies.
Fincher runs hot and cold, the American version came out directly after the original, and I've had my doubts about the casting (esp. after watching Cowboys & Aliens).
That said, anyone who can handle an idea like The Fight Club as deftly as Fincher deserves the benefit of the doubt; I will see the new movie.
Sorry for double post. Something happened during blog registration and what I had already written went away....
Sorry for double post. Something happened during blog registration and what I had already written went away....
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