David Fincher

It took me until about the third reel to fully appreciate Rooney Mara’s acidic portrayal of Lisbeth Salander. Ms. Mara inhabits the character with fearsome angst, throwing herself into the darkness of Lisbeth’s world. Literally, she has peered into the precipice to manifest this character. I hope she comes back. Mara has mastered the physical appearance; the way she moves and her expressions (mostly empty). It is frequently difficult to watch, but impossible to avert your eyes. Over time Ms. Mara does allow new emotions to visit Lisbeth’s face but they are oh so brief. This is a very difficult part to play and she does it with courage and amazing stamina.

David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on Stieg Larsson’s widely read novel, is an emotional feast for the eyes and ears. The opening credits send a clear message that this is not going to be a passive experience for the filmgoer. Fincher is known for creating chilling credit sequences (Se7en), and this one is no exception. It features a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song which at first thought may seem an odd choice, but over time I’ve come to believe it to be an inspired choice. It’s a powerful, pounding song and it’s amped up even more under Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s arrangement. It does not match the style of the film, but perhaps Fincher was thinking about bridging across the trilogy of works by Larsson. It says, “Strap in and hold on.”

The picture is always calculating and at times brutal; just ike the Vanger family. It’s a stunning piece of cinema craftsmanship. Extremely high production values across the board. Acting is top rated and the characters move around in a labyrinth of mind and body games, all effectively captured by Fincher and his crew. I found it fascinating how Larsson blended modern crime detective technology methods, with procedures used four decades earlier, largely photographs, interviews and handwritten notes. Fincher took it one step further and pushed it to ultra high-tech, while keeping the film’s look basic; even organic. I will be interested to see how the Academy reacts next month when they vote for the Oscar nominations.

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium-trilogy leads with Dragon Tattoo. Larsson’s work is a tour-de-force of modern literature and right in Mr. Fincher’s wheelhouse. If you haven’t read this book go buy it now and read it. I don’t believe it makes any difference whether you read the book or see the film first. They work wonderfully as stand alone achievements and complement each other in a way that is rare, which is a testament to Steven Zaillian’s (Schindler’s List) adaptation for the screen. Of course he leaves out some things from the novel, but he stays true to the work. The book is a strict chronology of the events, by day or string of days. It transitions from one character to another within the same time series chapter. Mr. Zaillian and Mr. Fincher need to unpack the story a bit differently to keep the pace moving and tell the story for the medium. The way they have structured the shots and scenes gives the film it’s power.

Many of the audience members in the showing I attended had read the book and were chatting about it before and after the screening. People seemed more than satisfied with the adaptation.

As a ward of the state for most of her life, Lisbeth Salander never really had much of a chance to engage with normal society, but she may not have wanted to. She has a brilliant, near photographic mind and is a sorcerer of technology, not to mention well connected to the hacker underworld. Employed by a security firm as a researcher, her talents are reserved for more “delicate” projects. Her reports are impeccably curated and full of details that no one else could get at.

Fincher tries to help us keep track of the various members of the Vanger family, which is quite difficult as there so many of them spanning 60+ years. An aging Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), the patriarch of the family, hires Mikael Blomkvist, (Daniel Craig) to try for one last time to solve the case of the sudden disappearance of Harriet Vanger at the age of 16. It was 40 years ago and mostly everyone has given up hope that she would ever be found. Harriet was the granddaughter of Henrik’s brother Richard. Vanger was heartbroken over the loss and is sure she was murdered by someone in the family.

Mr. Craig is solid in his portrayal of Mikael Blomkvist. Once confident, now reeling from a blow to his career. He is vulnerable but smart, and this explains how he is able to strike up a productive partnership with Lisbeth who assists him in trying to solve the case. Mr. Plummer is always a pleasure to watch as the aging head of a family that once dominated many aspects of commerce and industry in Sweden. You get the feeling that he is keeping a lot of skeletons in the closet. Oh, and of course secrets. Everyone is keeping secrets. The deep, dark variety. The remaining actors are well cast, engaging and suited to their characters. Particularly Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger. Mr. Skarsgård is a native of Sweden, which may account for his ability to fit in not only with the geography but the culture of the country. His performance perfectly captures the darkness that can exist among some Vangers. Also Steven Berkoff who plays Henrik’s private attorney Dirch Frode, a protector, keeper and handler of many things Vanger.

This is less about the film than the book, but Lisbeth is a fascinating character and I wish I could know more about what was going on in her mind. It’s overshadowed by her appearance and inability to connect with society. Her small, slender stature causes her to be underestimated by most people, especially Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen), Lizsbeth’s social worker. What happened to him was… Well, let’s just say it’s not a good idea to upset Ms. Salander without a strong Plan B.

The soundtrack is as somber as the story, with powerful punctuations during the film’s emotional scenes, and there are many of them. Reznor and Ross worked for nearly fourteen months on the score, and it adds to the picture’s drama and intensity. It converges seamlessly with the sound design on several occasions. Watch their music video release of the opening credits, a cover of Immigrant Song. Oh, one more thing about music in the picture. I nominate Dragon for the most creative use of an Enya song, ever!

The official Dragon web site is pretty standard fare for film sites. But do take a moment and explore the links in the upper right hand corner of the main site. These are sister sites and are much more interesting. Visit Mouth-Taped-Shut, which uses tumblr to promote the film and provide interesting graphics, What’s Hidden in the Snow and Comes Forth in the Thaw. A tip on the last one. Click the main page and then refresh the pop-up window several times. I also recommend you delve even deeper into the minds of the filmmakers. Click through How to Assemble a ‘Dragon‘ from the New York Times.

Images from the film courtesy of Sony Pictures. Vanger family tree from the novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I expected it to be difficult to separate my personal experiences on Facebook as well as what I have read about Mark Zuckerberg from the film experience. It wasn’t. I almost never thought about myself or my FB friends while watching this very engaging story. David Fincher (director) and Aaron Sorkin (writer) have made a compelling and entertaining drama in The Social Network. It’s beautifully framed with an active camera and a luscious palette. The filmmakers capture the moment perfectly.

The story has been repeated many times. Ideas are shared. People go off and do things on their own, having been inspired by these ideas, and create something that becomes successful. There is conflict as the original idea generators think their intellectual property has been stolen and are now entitled to compensation by those who have taken an idea and acted on it. Of course the thing that makes this stand out is that the something created is now the largest web site on the planet and has a market cap of $25 billion.

The story is about who should get the credit and the fortune for inventing Facebook. One thing to remember is there is no longer such a thing as an original idea. I’m defining original as a completely unique thought conceived by a single person alone without regard to time or place. In a vacuum if you will. In today’s converged and connected societies nothing exists in a vacuum. Whatever idea one has, whether it’s in the boardroom, the studio, or even on the field of battle, there are a thousand people (probably more) who are having a parallel thought at the same time. The idea is the easy thing. Executing it is significantly more difficult. I argue that bringing it to life should weigh much more heavily when it comes to granting ownership.

IdeaGraph — Graphic © Copyright 2010 Expedient MEANS

Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), recently spurned by his girlfriend (his ineptness), gets a payback idea to post photos of girls from Harvard on a web site and ask students to vote on who is hotter. He enlists his friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) to provide the algorithm he used for a prior project and sends out a link to the site to the student body. So many people voted that the school’s servers crashed. The seeds of Facebook are born and although the code was written by Mark, the decision engine was provided by Mr. Saverin.

Twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) read about this event in the school paper and think they may have found the code jockey they’ve been looking for to help them manifest a student connection web site idea. They meet with Mark and he agrees to help.

While working (supposedly) on the Winklevoss project Mark nurtures his own idea, coding day and night and leading to the moment where he makes the request to Network Solutions to purchase thefacebook.com domain. Whenever the project needs money, Eduardo writes a check, so Mark anoints him CFO to his CEO of The Facebook. The twins are not consulted or informed.

The site grows quickly and expands to other colleges and universities across the country. Enter Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), founder of Napster. He wakes up in the bed of a Stanford coed and discovers the site on her laptop. He is intrigued enough to find out who’s behind it and persuades Mark and Eduardo to visit California. Sean uses slick moves and start-up talk to convince Mark that CA is the place to be. Mark bites. Meanwhile Eudardo feels it’s time to monetize the site and takes the Facebook story door to door to major advertising firms in New York, but cannot convince anyone to get on board in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, Sean connects Mark to VC money and the financing has now officially shifted from Eduardo’s modest trust fund to big league start-up funding. Game over on so many levels.

I saw The Social Network and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps a few short weeks apart and have been thinking about the financial chasm that exists between the two coasts ever since. The west coast machine searches for something new, feeds it and watches to see if it will grow. They are the angel investors. But if it doesn’t meet their strict financial hurdles, you can bet they will drop the idea like third period French. Yes billions of dollars vanished during the dot com bust of the late 1990’s, but much was learned and that knowledge and skill was adapted and reused, benefiting companies and government programs. In contrast, the east coast, the more established machine, works to harden their already storied institutions by looking for ways to siphon money from existing systems. When their bubble burst there was not much benefit to anyone. I often read about how Wall Street continues to attract our best and brightest, but fails to return anything of substantial value to the ecosystem. Certainly New York gets a lot of the talent, but there are plenty of brilliant people in the west working just as hard. The west however, does turn out a product, even if it’s code. It’s easy to criticize either side, and we definitely need more transparency.

Mr. Fincher is a craftsman of high order. I go back and watch Fight Club every year. No chases, explosions or reliance on special effects here. It’s acting, dialogue and pacing all the way. A couple of times I felt I was watching a documentary about Facebook. Finally, somebody giving Oliver Stone some competition.

We all know Aaron Sorkin is a genius with words; A Few Good Men, The West Wing and soon, Moneyball. This picture would not be on nearly as many critic’s best 10 lists without Mr. Sorkin’s contributions. At first I felt Trent Reznor was a peculiar choice to compose the soundtrack, but it works. He starts off cold and electronic, perfect coding music. Then bridges to a richer, more intense sound as the story unpacks Mr. Zuckerberg’s quirks and immaturity.

Mark is the central figure here without a doubt. It’s sometimes painful to watch him, almost Asperger’s Syndrome like, in the deposition scenes as he defends his ownership of Facebook. He’s a loner that wants to have friends. Unquestionably brilliant, but not necessarily wise. In the film he is portrayed as someone who puts design and experience ahead of the temptation to sell out his web property, which caused him to lose his friendship with Eduardo. Keeping Facebook pure was more important than the people in his life. Mr. Eisenberg turns in a wonderful performance and is sure to be nominated by the Academy for his effort. For the record, The Winkelvoss twins as well as Mr. Saverin settled for a substantial amount of money to walk away. Eduardo managed to keep his name on the corporate masthead. Appropriate I think.

I highly recommend The Social Network as a movie. For those couple of people who are not yet on Facebook, go on, buy a ticket to the movie. You’ll enjoy yourself. The official movie web site is more interesting than most. Visit it here. Special thanks to my friend Augie Ray who noted that Mr. Zuckerberg could have a pervasive disorder called Asperger’s Syndrome. His review of The Social Network can be read here. I have a son with Asperger’s and can say that there are some striking similarities in the behavior that both young men exhibit.

Photos from The Social Network courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Tag: David Fincher

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Film Review