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Cinema over story. It’s alright to have a shitty mystery as long as the viewer is engaged by breathtaking visuals and perverted people. This is not only Fincher’s most underrated movie but also this is a Brian De Palma-Abel Ferrara fusion in the 21st century. This movie grossed 290 million and has a score of 86% on rotten tomatoes so how the fuck is it underrated? Seven, The Social Network, Fight Club, Gone Girl, House of Cards, Zodiac, and Mindhunter. Since Fincher put out all these bangers, this movie adapted from Steigg Larsson’s novel has somewhat fallen into the cracks of history.

Let’s start with the location. The fictional town of Hedelstad secluded somewhere in Sweden is both beautiful and ominous. The audience can feel the chilly temperatures from the surly winter portrayed to make the protagonist’s quest more challenging. Ironically the protagonist is not the girl with the dragon tattoo. Daniel Craig plays the convicted journalist Mikael Blomkvist who spends more time following a healthy diet of sandwiches, cigarettes, and scotch rather than solving the conundrum he was paid to uncover. If the town wasn’t so isolated I would have loved to see him go to the local bar and order a complicated vodka martini. On the other hand, Rooney Mara proves that she is the superior Mara by playing an unconventional, emaciated, rude, dark, but striking young PI, Lisbeth, who Mikael takes on as a research assistant to help him solve the disappearance of Harriet. Eh, it’s not like the details of the research matter in this movie. The two amateur sleuths make broad conclusions based on a photo and some old records.

When Stellan Skarsgard, who plays Martin Vanger, enters the movie with a sinister smile a quarter of the way into the movie, you’re like “that guy fucking did it”. But I would encourage you to take a look at Martin’s lavish, modern home which is an architectural masterpiece. The glass view to nature makes me want to book an Airbnb in the Catskills and be thoroughly disappointed because I’m not in Sweden. The scene is topped off with expensive guns, a stylish kitchen, expensive wine, and a fancy decanter that can potentially justify alcoholism. When has a guy that rich ever been a good person?

I guess I can talk about Christopher Plummer, the fat guy who plays a rapist, or the girl who eventually ends up being Hariet; but I’m not going to waste my breath. So back to the visuals. The flashback when Hariet went missing has this yellow color that is a revolutionary way to show a dramatic past accompanied by a menacing score and an outdated Julian Sands.

The use of smoking is elite regardless of whether it’s Daniel Craig relapsing, the elderly detective lighting one up explaining his Rebecca case, or the Nazi Harald Vanger getting down from the stairlift to proudly chat about his “accomplishments”. It really adds to the darkness, isolation, and depression.

Lastly, Martin’s torture chamber in the basement of his house consisting of a gas chamber, a vintage tape recorder, and a tripod stand really captures the macabre. The contrast of a dirty man cave underneath an opulent house with the right amount of mold adds to Fincher’s eye for detail.

I made a comment about Brian De Palma and Abel Ferrara earlier but never addressed it. I can see a little bit of “Body Double” in this movie from its focus on highlighting the extravagance of Hollywood rather than focus on the matter at hand. I can see a little bit of the dingy tone set in “King of New York”. Lastly, this movie holds the depravity that in my opinion went too far in the “Bad Lieutenant”. Luckily, we didn’t see any long scenes of uncovering hidden information similar to scenes in “Blow Out”. Fincher cut that shit out while De Palma would have been like “Can we get more scenes of Lisbeth and Mikael staring at a laptop?”. I know the two random sex scenes fit into the tone of the 70s and 80s where the director has to oblige the producer’s note to “get some titties on screen”, but these were too absurd for my taste and didn’t add one lick to the story.

I swear to God you will love this movie, but when you are going into this adventure make sure you know what you are looking for.