The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

 

☆ ☆ ☆

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) – N. A. Oplev

A bit too sadistic for my liking but I guess there is no denying that the film succeeds in creating well-rounded characters, particularly that of Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), whose backstory may be fleshed out further in subsequent films, I gather. The plot is a rather conventional whodunnit, with journalist Mikael Blomkvist hired by Henrik Vanger (of the wealthy Vanger Corporation) to solve the 40-year old murder of his niece.  There’s a family full of suspects to investigate, all living nearby on a secluded island off the coast of Sweden. But what makes things different this time is the use of technology (primarily by hacker Lisbeth) to track down and analyse clues.  One wonders how a supercomputer (or future A. I. program) would perform at this same task.  I guess it wouldn’t end up risking its own life in a confrontation with the villain of the piece.  As could be expected, the mise-en-scene here is all wintry grey which sets the mood but feels cliché at this point (or perhaps all of those Scandinavian Noir tv series came after this?).  David Fincher remade this film for Hollywood but I’m not sure whether it is worth taking a look (at some distant point in the future) or even whether I should check out the subsequent two installments.  From the books by Stieg Larsson.

  

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

 

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Drag Me to Hell (2009) – S. Raimi

It only gradually dawned on me that this film is actually an homage to Jacques Tourneur’s Curse of the Demon (1957) – which I should have realised since that is one of my all-time favourite films.  Most obviously, there is a curse placed on the protagonist (here, Alison Lohman) that means that a demon will come and destroy her in a matter of days.  In CotD, the curse came from an Alastair Crowley-type figure and here it is from a Hungarian gypsy but the slow encroachment of the demon is the same, all shadows and psychological effects at first before the full-on attack.  Although Tourneur’s film (drawn from a story by M. R. James) really focused on the passing of the runes, the passing of an object is not neglected here and although Dana Andrews played a sceptical psychologist who was cursed in the earlier film that role goes to Lohman’s boyfriend (Justin Long) in this film – she is a bank loan officer instead.  Beyond also showing a séance, that’s probably where the similarities end (except perhaps the ending and its location!).  Raimi’s film is much more tongue-in-cheek, a bit scary but definitely with some gross-out humour (and comedy-of-embarrassment scenes) and “modern” special effects and action, harkening back to the later Evil Dead movies for which he is rightly famous.  Ultimately, this is a fun ride but with an extra special something for fans of classic supernatural horror (which really can’t be beat – check out the earlier film if you can!). 

Farewell (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆

Farewell (2009) – C. Carion

I’m a sucker for Cold War spy dramas, although I recognise that really good specimens are rare (and I am not sure I have seen any other French ones). Farewell, the code name for this adventure, takes place in the early ‘80s just before perestroika and Gorbachev’s ensuing glasnost policies.  Indeed, the Soviet official (played expertly by Emir Kusturica, a director in his own right) turning over information to the French secret service claims to be doing so because he loves his country and wants to see reforms.  The film is not a complicated political thriller nor a cat-and-mouse chase between the authorities and the mole; instead it is partly a buddy film (the Soviet source and the French engineer who is his contact, played by Guillaume Canet) and partly a study of the impact of this high stakes leak on their relationships with their wives and children. Once the Americans get involved (Reagan is played somewhat jarringly by Fred Ward, with David Soul and Willem Dafoe by his side), the pressure on the protagonists becomes too much.  Yet, despite its promise and the solid acting throughout, the result is rather middling. I’m not sure what I was expecting but perhaps it takes too long to get there.

  

The House of the Devil (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The House of the Devil (2009) – T. West

I’m sure the production team had a lot of fun with this feature, a pitch perfect recreation of a late 70s/early 80s “teenager in peril” horror film.  Right from the opening credits, with bad font and freeze frame and the spooky synth soundtrack, those who remember the genre from when it was new will be tickled.  There is a really really slow build as we meet Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), the babysitter hired by a weird older couple (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov), and her rebellious friend, Megan (Greta Gerwig), with feathered Farrah hair, who drives her out to the upstate New York house.  It turns out that Sam is meant to babysit Woronov’s elderly mother rather than any actual baby – on the night of a lunar eclipse that turns out to be significant (the opening credits tip us off that Satanism is somehow involved).  Of course, Sam is soon alone in the dark and quiet old house and suspense builds and builds.  In fact, this is probably the point of the film – how long can the director (Ti West, who also wrote the screenplay) toy with us by offering false alarms, just bumps in the night?  And then suddenly there is a burst of horror and the film rushes to its conclusion.  Perhaps there is ultimately less than meets the eye but I personally felt satisfied – I don’t need any drawn out gory horror but rather some indicative supernatural flourishes will fulfil me plenty.  (We get a bit more than that).  In the end, this is a showcase for directorial fetishism, I suppose, and it seems that Ti West’s career in horror has been assured.  If all of his work is “old school”, I might be tempted to check more of it out (despite the low IMDb ratings).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) – N. A. Oplev

Grim and ugly.  The original Norwegian title apparently translates to “Men who Hate Women” which seems apt for a film that is filled with sexual violence.  This is not the sort of content that I prefer to watch -- and indeed, we turned off the Fincher remake a few years ago during a rape scene.  However, following further, the horror and sadness evoked by seeing these experiences of women is (only somewhat) allayed by the presence of a heroic and self-sufficient (if not fully empowered) female character, Lisbeth Salander (played by Noomi Rapace).  She takes revenge on her rapist and also helps to solve the 40-year old mystery of the murdered teenager that drives the plot.  Lisbeth is a goth girl with the dragon tattoo and numerous piercings, under government-ordered guardianship, and a hacker by profession.  Her hacking job involves profiling investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (played by Michael Nyqvist) for a rich industrialist who happens to be the uncle of the murdered girl, now in his eighties.  He hires Blomkvist to solve the murder that the police could not, in a frozen and remote part of Norway.  Most of the family members are suspects.  Blomkvist and Salander are given enough backstory to feel like real people but the mystery itself (from Stig Larsson’s novel) seems to conclude rather abruptly (despite the film’s lengthy running time).  All told, I’m not sure I needed to see this – but Lisbeth Salander seems a valuable feminist hero to add to the canon (perhaps helping to inform the later zeitgeist that resulted in the “me too” movement).