At the same time, Fincher, rather surprisingly considering the stomach-churning morbidity of Zodiac and Se7en, keeps the depraved murders of women more on the periphery than Larsson did. They're still disturbing, but he doesn't work to make sure we feel it, and he skips very quickly through the goriest photos. This doesn't just keep the pace lively (and the film's brisk momentum is a welcome adjustment to the 300 pages the book takes to uncover even the first clue), it also prevents Dragon Tattoo from turning into yet another movie in which women are treated like meat and brutalized without concern for the effect such iconography has on viewers.
The American film simplifies the book's intricate plot somewhat but hangs onto the key points, and even reverses some of the changes that the Swedish film had made. Most notably, Zaillian's script foils the reputation of Hollywood product as pat and trite by returning to the novel's original bittersweet ending -- and thereby keeping Salander's outcast status as intact as that of a stoic cowboy in a classic western.
One area that does give pause is the number of times Mara is nude in the film -- though it's on a par with the extent of Rapace's nudity in the Swedish version. To the film's credit, the nude scenes come across as much more from Salander's own perspective than we are used to seeing in mainstream entertainment. When she has sex, she stays firmly in character--so much so in one scene, she even gets laughs for it. Still, considering the lack of central heating in an old cabin and the twenty degrees-below weather for much of the story, isn't it likely that she would need to keep some layers on, even during sex?
Also, it is worth a mention that though the trio of titles which Larsson's books have taken on in English have appealing color and symmetry (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest ), for its 25-year old heroine to be labeled a "girl' when she's well beyond the age of majority is sending a mixed message to say the least.
Obviously, there is much to discuss when it comes to the depiction of the female gender on screens large, small, and hand-held. It is encouraging to know that Miss Representation , which premiered in 2011 at Sundance, has reached a wide audience on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and that it is scheduled to appear on DVD in February. The filmmakers clearly care about making significant change; they have several activist campaigns underway and their website boasts a blog, a media literacy curriculum for students, and polling on new TV shows.
It is also, all things considered, a positive development that the Rooney Mara Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a hit with both critics and audiences. Even if Lisbeth Salander is sometimes misrepresented, misappropriated, or misperceived, we've been given an Amazonian warrior who is a potent antidote for business as usual in media depictions of women.
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