some of you may know that i have recently seen both versions of "the girl with the dragon tattoo". well, i decided to write a little...write-up about what i thought about both of them.
i already wrote a facebook note about what i thought of the fincher version and you can go read that now if you want...but, you don't have to.
i'll begin with a kinda comparison of the two films.
firstly...i really liked david fincher's version more than the original. 2011 dragon is a more streamlined and satisfying story. gone are any and all visual references to lisbeth's parents. in the original you see lisbeth set her father on fire and later visit her mother in an institution. that has been jettisoned.
2011 lisbeth is a complete mystery. in the original mikal tells her that she knows everything about him but he knows nothing about her. but we do. we see bits and pieces of her past. in 2011, next to nothing. we see nothing of her backstory. there's a mention that she tried to kill her father. but we don't see it.
we do see her interact with her former guardian who had a stroke. there is a softness there you see nowhere else.
i also found 2011 more satisfying because of two scenes that are totally different than the original. first, there is a scene where lisbeth revisits her rapist guardian in an elevator. he is visibly upset and she is so threatening even though she probably weighs all of 80lbs. anyway, she tells him to stop visiting tattoo removal sites of she'll come back and tattoo his forehead. apparently that didn't even happen in the book and that's such a great scene!!
the next thing is the death of martin vanger. in 2011 lisbeth asks mikal if she can kill him and he says yes, but she doesn't get the chance as the car explodes after the accident. but you could see that she wanted to. the original works, too...but i just found the fincher version more powerful.
finally, i will talk about the differences between the two lisbeths.
rooney's lisbeth is almost not human. her eyebrows are lightened so you can't really see them and it makes her look...off. she's also cold and emotionless. it seems as though she already knows everything that is going to happen and is just waiting for everyone else to catch up and that that fact annoys her. she's curt and sometimes rude. because of the lack of the scene with her mother we don't really see a softer side until the end when she "happy" because she has let mikal in just a little and thinks of him as a friend.
noomi plays lisbeth as kind of a gothic punk. she is also curt and rude but more in a "leave me alone i've had a rough life" sort of way. there's so much more humanity in noomi's lisbeth and in many ways that makes you relate to her character a little more.
both lisbeths are incredible specimens of womanhood. both are tough and independent, resourceful and smart.
so...hopefully this will open a discussion about the two films. i want to know what you think and what you think about what i think.
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