Watch: David Fincher’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ Is a Symphony of Angles

When I first learned that David Fincher would be directing the American adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,’ I was a bit concerned: I was partial to the original Swedish adaptation, to Noomi Rapace’s steady glare, which somehow managed to be both understated and aggressive, simultaneously. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure what Rooney Mara could do with Lisbeth Salander–she had projected strength in ‘The Social Network,’ but the capacity for violence seemed a bit of a stretch. Also, Fincher tends to devour when adapting–he turned ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button‘ into such a distinctive creation that, sadly, many critics ignored the marvelous F. Scott Fitzgerald story on which it’s based. This movie was a slightly different case: Fincher does consume and re-interpret the original text, but the consumption here is in service of the book, and as such is a (literally) thrilling visual phenomenon. Kristin Slater’s restless and forceful piece points out something integral to the film’s approach: that its angles tell a greater story, in some ways, than the script. That the constant adjustment and rejiggering of the viewer’s perspective takes us quite convincingly inside the mind of Lisbeth, into her unique and tortured way of seeing the world. Unstable? Perhaps. Or maybe just… correct.