The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Fincher (2011)

Plot
Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a reporter for the news paper Millenium, is sentenced to pay fines, as one of his articles includes false accusations against a CEO. Mikael soon gets a call from Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), formely the CEO of Vangerkoncernen. Mikael decides too meet with Henrik, but what he doesn't know is that Henrik Vanger's right hand Frode (Steven Berkoff) has been checking up on Michael, with the help of hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara).

Henrik Vanger wants Blomkvist to help find his niece's killer, who mocks him by sending a picture of a flower every year. A gift his niece used to give him on his birthday. Mikael borrows a small house close to Henrik Vangers mansion, and starts to dig into the family's history.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander tries to get trough, after her intendant gets a stroke Lisbeth's life is turned for the worse. After being sexually abused by her new intendant Nils Bjurman, she decides to get a revenge on him that he will never ever forget. At the same time, Blomkvist is starting to get somewhere in the case of Harriet Vanger's killer.

Opinion
This is a remake of a Swedish film that is really good. A film that is about two people working together before they even know they are. This is not the case in the American film. Lisbeth and Mikael are working in different places the whole time, and when the meet, for some reason they seem to be lovers since forever. Lisbeth has for some reason turned into a trusting, weak girl.

The un-swedishness of the stiff boring surroundings makes the film a poor choice if you like the original one. It seems like the director is using a lot of American, Swedish stereotypes. They look and behave like Americans think swedes does, and what they don't know, they make it american. This is not working, and everything from, dialogue to surroundings seems stiff and unnatural. It also annoys that they mix Swedish and English all the time. Keep it consistent, that would have been a bit better. I also find it weird that the American actors were speaking english poorly, and swedish poorly. Skarsgård were the only one actually speaking both languages the best.

There is no chemistry between the two actors either, and there is no conviction in their acting. It feels like they are just going trough the motions.

On top of that, there is a lot of things that you in the Swedish version can guess yourself too. Build you own story trough what happens in the plot, but in this case you can't build your own story. Everything, every little detail is shown, or told in the plot.

There are two things I can find that is good with the movie, and that is  1) the intro. It is computer animated and looks really good and 2) Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger.

I will not recommend anyone to see if if you like the Swedish version. I will not recommend it anyway as the film is really awful.

Rooney dödade Lisbeth

Jag skrev för ett tag sedan ett inlägg om hur mina förväntningar på The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, och speciellt hur Rooney Mara verkade vara som Lisbeth Salander.
Igår kväll såg jag filmen.
Rooney Mara dödade Lisbeth Salander.
Hon rev ner precis allting som Noomi Rapace byggt upp med Lisbeth.
Nu får vi börja om igen.

Lisbeth Salander är en trasig kvinna, men hon är inte en kvinna med ett öppet sår. Hon blöder inte längre. Hon vill bara ha sin hämnd. Hon vill ha hämnd för andra.
Lisbeth klarar sig själv, och hon är inte dummare än hon behöver att vara. Salander vet vad hon vill ha, hon tar det och hon blir inte fäst vid saker.
Rooney Mara är öppen, frågar om hon får saker och blir förtjust i Mikael Blomkvist. Men hon frågar först om hon kan få det. Hon berättar allt om sig själv, och Lisbeth gör inte sådant. Lisbeth tar reda på det hon behöver, och bestämmer därefter om det är värt hennes tid eller inte. Oftast är det inte det. Hon lägger inte ner känslor där det inte behövs, och hon behöver ingen fasad.
Lisbeth litar inte på Blomkvist, hon litar inte på någon, och definitivt inte oss.
Inte utan att ha kollat upp oss, och visste hon våra innersta hemligheter skulle hon nog inte lita på oss så länge hon levde.

Mara har ingen glöd i sin blick som Noomi har. Lisbeth lever för vissa få saker, inget som Mara tar till sig alls.
Där Noomi som Lisbeth slår tillbaka, tar Mara emot och gör ingenting. Hon rör sig bara i ett rörelsemönster, utan övertygelse, utan tankar och utan list.

Jag kan verkligen inte hitta något bra med Maras version av Lisbeth och min förväntning att Lisbeth skulle vara en rockstjärne-wannabe blev infriad. Lisbeth har inte en fasad, Lisbeth är äkta. Mara är inte äkta. Hon har bara på sig kläderna för att revolta emot samhället. Som en tonåring, och hon beter sig som en tonåring. Hon får Lisbeth att verka som någon som ska vara omyndigförklarad.

Mara tar emot samhället med våld, Rapace tar emot samhället med list och rättvisa.

Tetro (Coppola, 2009)

Plot
Bennie (Alden Ehrenrich), a young boy, soon turning 18 shows up at his brother's apartment in Buenos Aires. His brother, Tetro (Vincent Gallo), ran away when Bennie were a young child. Tetro refuses to admit he has a family, but Bennie wants to know why Tetro ran away.

Tetro is now living with a woman named Miranda (Maribel Verdú), whom he met when he just came to Argentina, and is still a failed writer when Bennie finds him. Bennie and Miranda help each other to find out why Tetro ran off, and it turns out to be Bennie's family history that has been hidden for everyone, not Tetro's.

Opinion
Coppola has not always managed to succeed with his films, but in this one he does. It is a film noir, without the police detective, but with the intrigues.
The dialogue is well-written, and there are no giant holes in the plot. The black and white setting of the film makes shadows, lightning and sound important, and in this case the whole setting off the film fits perfectly in every aspect.

I would say that the actors fit their roles perfectly, and also, the characters personalities are also put together with great care. Tetro, the crusty one who refuses to talk to his brother, Miranda, the always happy and bubbly girlfriend and Bennie, the young innocent boy who can not say no.

This time Coppola managed to succeed. A film I would recommend to anyone if you can get hold of it!

Top-21!

Here is (I guess) my top 21 favourite films that I think everyone should watch some day!

• Carrie (De Palma, 1976)
• La vita è Bella ((Life is Beautiful) Benigni, 1997)
• M (Lang, 1931)
• Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas (Selick, 1993)
• Iron Man (Favreau, 2008)
• The Others (Amenábar, 2001)
• Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari ((The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) Wiene, 1920)
• Chocolat (Hallström, 2000)
• Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984)
• El laberinto del fauno ((Pan's Labyrinth)Del Toro, 2006)
• El orfanato ((The Orphanage/Barnhemmet) Bayona, 2007) 
• The Full Monty (Cattaneo, 1997)
• E.T.: The Extra-Terrstrial (Spielberg, 1982)
• What's eating Gilbert Grape  (Hallström 1993)
• Stand By Me (Reiner, 1986)
• American History X (Kaye, 1998)
• Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauen (Nosferatu, a symphony of Horror) Murnau, 1922)
• Bringing up Baby (Hawks, 1938)
• Gladiator (Scott, 2000)
• Friday Night Lights (Berg, 2004)
• Cry-Baby (Waters, 1990)

Challengers: Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, The Crow, Watchmen, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Children of The Corn, Halloween, The Lion King, Fight Club, Night of The Living Dead, Green Street Hooligans, Sin City, Henry- A Serial Killer, Finding Neverland, Donnie Darko, Batman - The Dark Knight, London To Brighton, Candy, Bravo Two Zero, Top Gun, Queen of The Damned, Underworld, Snarveien, Trolljegeren, House on Haunted Hill, Hellraiser, Alice In Wonderland, 28 Days Later, Blair Witch Project