Monday, January 9, 2012

ALL THAT AND AN IKEA JOKE: I love David Fincher. I loved Fight Club, liked Panic Room, loved Social Network, know I will love Zodiac once I see it (Adam, why didn't you tell me this was any good?), love his signature touches (the dim taupe palette, the heroic credit sequences), and love his furtive sense of humor. Example: In Fight Club, Tyler Durden tells a possibly fabricated story about how he used to work in a theater and splice single frames of male anatomy into the movies so that the audience would receive them subliminally, and then, as Fight Club reaches its climax, Fincher does the same thing. It's just about a frame, barely enough to notice; not enough to interrupt the narrative; plenty enough to insinuate himself, and maybe you, into Durden's japery.

Spacewoman and I have decided, therefore, that Fincher was sharing a little in-joke with readers of his source material when, in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first thing Mikael Blomkvist does is order a sandwich. The sandwiches! This is an exceedingly violent movie, but there probably are more sandwiches than guns. Well played, David Fincher.

22 comments:

  1. Paul Tabachneck7:29 PM

    Actually, my theatre laughed when the first sandwich of the movie was ordered. 

    Also, from my facebook page, just before the previews rolled: 

    "<span>About to watch Dragon Tattoo.... Which, if Fincher stayed true to the book, will begin with an hour-long documentary on the Swedish economy."</span>

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  2. Jordan7:34 PM

    I saw Zodiac not that long ago.  It is very good.

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  3. GoldnI8:42 PM

    All they do in the book is eat sandwiches, drink coffee (black), smoke cigarettes, and occsaionally kill someone.  In that vein, the movie stayed extremely true to the book.

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  4. I thought the Swedish version was fairly dreadful, and while I understood the appeal I didn't enjoy the book enough to read the others.  Nonetheless I've been intriqued by the trailers for the Fincher version.  So should I see it?  Is there as much difference in tone and emphasis as the previews suggest?

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  5. isaac_spaceman9:30 PM

    I haven't finished the Swedish version.  Rooney Mara is very good and apparently is the only person in the movie willing to attempt a Swedish accent.  Craig is okay, though 10 years too young, far too fit, and too resolutely British for Blomkvist.  The movie occasionally seems to have a healthy awareness of the creepiness of some of the stuff in the books that is not supposed to be creepy (basically, Blomkvist's love life) and an unhealthy pride in the stuff from the books that is supposed to be creepy.  You can't blame Fincher for the latter, though, nor the ridiculous, unnecessary, and probably inscrutable (if you haven't read the book) last half-hour.  You can half-blame him for indulging Steig Larsson's fantasy of the Millenium co-editor, here played by Robin Wright with an accent that is half Princess Buttercup and half Swedish Chef and an affect and worldview that is all Real Doll. 

    But the movie, other than two plot departures and some dialogue revisions (all Fincher's revisions improve on the original, in my opinion), is exactly what you should expect from the books.  This is not a Wag the Dog/LA Confidential revision, where you can recognize some of the characters but everything else is different.  This is a mostly faithful adaptation of a flawed work.  The pacing is better than the books (that's not saying much), the tone is the same (except with less Blomkvist-worship), and the events are disturbing.  If you like Fincher and you want to see what would have happened in the books if they had an editor willing to make a few cuts, you could do a lot worse. 

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  6. isaac_spaceman9:31 PM

    It's a direct response to you saying that nobody told you that Louie was any good.  So I'll see you there, I guess.

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  7. Becca9:35 PM

    I've never read the book, but I found the movie, on its own, to work really well as a somewhat kinky mystery movie. The excellent acting helped. It improved on some of the stuff I thought didn't work as well in the Swedish version, most notably, Rapace's portrayal of Lisbeth. She did a good job of portraying a character, but she was scary as shit. Mara's Lisbeth strikes me as someone people might actually want to take advantage of. There's a far more effective vulnerableness to her. Also, the pacing was whackadoo, from an American standpoint, anyway. I swear Swedish people go to see American movies and are stunned when it's over. "That's it? Where's the rest of it? I could sit here for another 2 hours!"

    I did notice there was a lot of sandwich business in the movie, but, as a fellow sandwich aficionado, I can only approve heartily.

    Also, I appreciate you not including Benjamin Button in a list of Fincher's better movies. Yeesh, that movie.

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  8. A couple of random comments:

    1.  I commented on Facebook after seeing it that it's hard to think of many directors who have amassed as impressive a body of work in the past 10-15 years as Fincher.  There are some (and I'm sure you all can think of more), but he's really done something.  

    2.  (This is a SPOILER.)  I didn't read the books, and this wouldn't have been an issue if I had, but:  When you're casting the guy who is playing the surprise bad guy, don't choose the guy who ALWAYS (well, often) plays the surprise bad guy!

    3.  (Another SPOILER.)  Was the rape more integral to the book's plot?  It felt pretty gratuitous here, and was probably one of the very most disturbing things I've ever seen in a movie theater.

    4.  Another (minor) in-joke:  The guy in the NIN t-shirt.

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  9. I haven't read the book, but I've heard they also have quite a lot of sex.

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  10. In the book, the rape of Lisbeth serves two major purposes:

    1.  To justify her subsequent retaliatory actions, which are similarly brutal and unpleasant.
    2.  Larsson's thesis of the book is that beneath the seemingly perfect veneer of Swedish society lurks brutality and hatred of women, and that scene is designed to show the brutality that lurks beneath.

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  11. I did know about #2.  Indeed, the Swedish title of the trilogy is "Men Who Hate Women," right?  

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  12. It's still the "Millennium Trilogy" in Sweden, but the first and third books have different titles--the first is "Men Who Hate Women," and the third is "The Air Castle That Blew Up" (or "The Dream That Was Exploded").  Aside from the obvious marketing advantages of the revised title, it puts the focus on Salander, who's the FAR more interesting character than Blomkvist, even if Larsson clearly thought his surrogate was the interesting character.  (The title change and some edits are also part of the fallout of the complicated Larsson family/Larsson's common-law wife schism--she hates them, claiming they dilute his political/social message.)

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  13. Dan Suitor2:40 AM

    Haven't finished the first book yet, and as such I can't see the movie (this is a peccadillo my parents imprinted on me from a very young age), but I lovelovelove Fincher. What I can say is that, from what I've read so far, it seems like people have to put a lot of effort into liking this series. Not because there isn't quality stuff there, but because there's a lot of boring crap and questionable characterization to brush away first.

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  14. Marsha9:54 AM

    I love Fincher's work, but I won't be seeing the movie. I do NOT like watching violent movies, and I didn't particularly like the book.

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  15. This is about as good a summary as I've seen about the relationship b/w the movie and the book.  That said, I may have enjoyed both a bit more than Isaac.

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  16. This is about as good a summary as I've seen about the relationship b/w the movie and the book.  That said, I may have enjoyed both a bit more than Isaac.

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  17. Heartily applaud must-finish-book-first rule.  My parents were the same.

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  18. gretchen1:38 PM

    I just hope that the movie sequel will include a montage, perhaps set to a kicky Robyn song, of Lisbeth Salander buying out her local IKEA to furnish her luxury apartment.  I still can't believe that Larsson's editor allowed him to itemize every purchase she made, right down to the two LACK end tables and the four PALANG armchairs. 

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  19. Genevieve2:35 PM

    My rule for my son too - hope it imprinted on him as well as on you two!

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  20. isaac_spaceman10:15 PM

    I don't even think IKEA comes in Fincher's palette.

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  21. That more than answers my question, thank you.  I'll give it a pass.

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