#gwtdt

[kar1world]

[yeehawyallyall]

It’s me and my books that inspired film adaptations against the world. 🇸🇪

[iamdangerace]

[power-chords]

Some quick, off the cuff GWTDT thoughts before they leave my brain: I think Fincher’s adaptation is the definitive version, in the sense that it successfully elevates the source material, probably more than it deserves. I have a good enough memory of the books to sort them on the same shelf as like… Caleb Carr. They’re a fun series of pop self-insert novels that are guilty of the same occasionally groan-inducing Noble Writer Fanboyism. I’m almost surprised that Aaron Sorkin didn’t adapt the screenplay. But there’s some interesting stuff there, and the tone/aesthetic/character design is so razor-sharp that it sidesteps much of the intrinsic goofiness of Larsson’s concept, convinces me to overlook its flaws. (The Swedish movie botches this IMO, but it’s been ages since I’ve seen it, so maybe I should revisit it in the spirit of fairness.)

The story endears itself to me because it’s a classic MM-style character setup in which the two leads are positioned as both mirror and negative images, disparate in background and general disposition, but united in their professionalism, seeing in each other the same combination of drive and principle that alienates them from their peers. And what would be a strictly subtextual eroticism in a MM film is made textual by virtue of Lisbeth’s gender: she gets to perform the [masculine, coded-as] role of the State-Raised Violent Criminal that society has abused, sidelined, and habitually underestimated.* Mikael, meanwhile, remains tethered to the comforts and conventions of polite, middle-class society even as he goes flailing around with a blowtorch at its corporate support beams. This hypocrisy bears deadly consequences when he follows those same superficial notions and presumptions — of propriety, of safety — back into Martin’s lair. “They all come willingly,” or whatever the line is. He is saved by Lisbeth, who has been ostracized and pathologized for so long that she no longer buys into those delusions, recognizes them for their menace, and feels no allegiance to them. She is free to act outside the strictures which have damaged her, possibly irreparably, and also enabled her to smell bullshit.

As with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button there is an abundance of Buxbaum Catnip Ingredients that I am powerless to resist, so I’m not offering any kind of unbiased assessment of GWTDT’s merits. They took a formula I am basically guaranteed to like and included “characters defined by their intense curiosity & keen observational skills” as the paired set of variables. Lisbeth and Mikael literally solve the mystery by going through a shitload of paperwork with their backs hunched over a desk. Of course this was going to appeal to me.

*I mean in accordance with traditional Hollywood sexual politics. Nothing would please me more than an American theater-going public that is prepared (and hungry!) for the Al Pacinos and Bob De Niros of the world to go riding off into the sunset together, or for the Mikael Blomkvists to be 40- or 50-something women, maybe even the Lisbeth Salanders to be queer young men. In the interim, I’m happy for a thriller that explicitly toys with gendered stereotypes, in fact makes a point of doing so, even if it’s just to use a different selection of colors within the same set of lines.

[providence-park]

“Keep in mind that I'm crazy, won't you?”

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Dir. David Fincher

[moistcell]

[broody-yellow-pillow]

Rewatching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

And I don’t think I ever really appreciated Mimmi’s “Do you need me to stay” and then as she’s leaving Lisbeth’s apology for having to kick her out.

[fratboykate]

Lets be real here: an actress can be incredible at what she does yet still be the absolutely wrong choice for a role and I can't recall a recent example more suitable to prove this than casting Claire Foy as Lisbeth in this new GWTDT movie. That was BAD casting. AWFUL casting. No one will ever be able to play that like Rooney did so can that franchise right now unless you're going to give it back to her. I can't believe they would do her this dirty.