This English-language adaptation of the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, as he investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.
An altogether leaner, meaner, more high-powered, stylish, and deftly directed affair, though similarly hampered by a too-long narrative fuse.
– J. Hoberman,
Village Voice,
20 Dec 2011
fresh:
David Fincher's adaptation of the international best-seller is a triumph of craftsmanship over material.
– Ben Sachs,
Chicago Reader,
21 Dec 2011
rotten:
What he has delivered is adequate, but it doesn't have any flavor - and of all the things Fincher is, "bland" is not usually one of them.
– Eric D. Snider,
Film.com,
21 Dec 2011
rotten:
Fincher's Dragon Tattoo is a faithful adaptation that brings the dazzle but shortchanges on the daring... It's gloriously rendered but too impersonal to leave a mark.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
22 Dec 2011
fresh:
It's certainly worth seeing if you missed the original. If you saw it, however, there's no way of unseeing it, and nothing in the new one to top it.