The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Ok, the basics.

David Fincher's adaptation of Stieg Larsson's thriller, starring Daniel Craig as an investigative reporter tasked with looking into the decades old death of a millionaire industrialist's niece, and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, a pretty mentally damaged computer hacker/researcher who assists him/does all the heavy lifting for him because he's not really that bright.

These are pretty great performances, but overall, the film has a problem, which is best seen in comparison with the earlier Swedish film. It's too short. That might be an odd thing to say about a film that's two hours and forty minutes, and actually longer than the Swedish cinema version. The problem is, the Fincher version wastes quite a bit of time. I say wastes, that's not fair, you can look at snow all you like, I'm not going to criticise a filmmaker for that. But if two hours and forty is what you have to play with, I think more of that time was needed on the dialogue.

If I may trivialise the original book for a moment, what this is, is a story of a dark secret from the past that has remained secret because a collection of very private and reticent people are reluctant to talk about it, and the reporter investigating it isn't even that sure he wants to know either, at least initially. In the Swedish version, this led to a lot of conversations like:

"Tell me about the girl"
"Can I get you a drink Mr Blomquist?"
"No, thank you, now, about the girl..."
"Ah go on. I'm having one."
"I'm fine for whiskey thanks."
"Ah you will. You will, you will, you will."
"Oh alright then."

...before getting on and talking about the girl. In the Fincher version, that scene goes.

"Tell me about the girl"
"Can I get you a drink Mr Blomquist?"
"Yes please."

Which then leads to scenes like:
"Tell me about the girl then"
"I'm very reluctant to tell you about that."
"Please?"
"Oh, alright, seeing as its you, Mr Bond."

Ultimately, it feels like it was made by someone who thought that the book was fine and all, but it was a bit *talky*, it had too many *words* in it. And I'm not going to be so cheap as to say that it was *all* style and *no* substance, but having seen a version that very much erred on the side of substance, I can't say that moving towards the style was the best treatment for the story.

Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows

I said of the last film that the whole thing was a case of Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law lurching around the place like a pair of drunk Victorian ninjas. Well, why change a winning formula?

This time around, the whole thing is marginally more coherent, focussing as it does on Moriarty's attempts to twirl his moustache and take over the world, and Holmes attempting to overcome his own ridiculousness in order to stop him. Jared Harris makes a better villain for the piece than Mark Strong did last time, because he hams it up a little more, and is clearly having a good time with it.

I feel like this time around, Sherlock's super-power of working things out is presented rather better, as we occasionally get what looks like a psychic episode, either reading the future from the likely actions of his opponent, or, as in one occasion, deducing how a given room was built, and thus where the secret exit is, from a tiny number of cues. Whilst all the time apparently being too preoccupied to bathe.

It's still being played for laughs, but the thing is, I laughed. A lot. As an action thriller it might be seen as barely adequate, if that. Add a really thick layer of really very good comedy writing and performances, and ludicrousness becomes playfulness, and the whole thing suddenly works, despite being utter nonsense.

Put it this way; Stephen Fry is Mycroft Holmes. He would not be in a thing like this, good Sherlockian that he is, if it didn't have a lot of comedy to recommend it.

The Ides Of March

Quite a workmanlike political thriller, sort of like an extended episode of The West Wing from some point in season six, only with everyone being a lot more sleazy under the surface. What's really strong, and at the same time weak about the film is that everyone's just about exactly as sleazy as you expect; it's a film with no heroes, but nobody truly vile either.

My Week With Marilyn

Dramatisation of the time Marilyn Monroe spent in Britain filming The Prince and The Showgirl with Laurence Olivier. Lovely little film, great performances from all, especially Kenneth Branagh as Olivier. And not as fluffy as the trailer suggests, given that the affair suggested by the title, with the film's third assistant director, is much more about Monroe's neuroses and insecurities than it is about any sort of romance.

Moneyball

Really interesting real life story, about how Billy Bean, manager of the Oakland As, gamed the whole player trading system, by fielding a team of players with peculiar reps, odd problems, and thus very low price tags, allowing him to win more points per dollar spent than any other team. Demonstrating that whatever you think sport is about, it's really all about spreadsheets and money. There's some implication that this was done to prove the system is rotten, and get some weird kind of revenge for his own disappointing professional career. Ultimately, though, it's a film that's a bit like The Damned United, but without the vitriol.

Anonymous

Apparently the Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans) wrote all of Shakespeare's plays. No he didn't. If this film has an objective, it appears to be to demonstrate how preposterous the whole idea is.

In time

Take a clever sci-fi idea; everyone gets genetically fixed to stop ageing at 25 (yay). They also get a fixed such that basically every second they live beyond that costs money, and if they run out of money on their wrist bank, they die (boo). If you like to think science-fictional thoughts, you probably think of some interesting ideas about that. All I can say is, maybe you should have written it, because all this really is, is a series of against the clock chase scenes with really high stakes.

The Adventures of Tin Tin

A jolly good digimation adventure romp, with really lovely use of special effect sequences. Only criticism: Sometimes the characters kind of look like grotesque puppets made of meat. Tin Tin has a perfectly spherical head. Seeing that with skin rather than cartoon skin-tone, that's a bit weird.

Justice, or Middle Of The Road Nic Cage Thriller.

So, Nic Cage's wife, January Jones is raped, and a shadowy organisation lead by Guy Pearce offers to deal with the culprit, and after umming and ahhing for a bit, Nic Cage agrees. He is then left with having to assist the shadowy organisation with their next revenge killing, which he has some problems with, motivationally. And then a really average thriller happens about this organisation's increasingly elaborate attempts to make him do it.

The Rum Diary

Take Withnail and I, transpose to Cuba, make it a little bit about Hunter S Thompson. It's entertaining like Withnail, and it's bitty and episodic like Withnail, but ultimately, it's at best about half as good as Withnail. Still, half as good as Withnail is a height a lot of films cannot hit.

The Help

Well meaning enough film about exploitation of black women as house maids in 50s-60s USA. Well meaning, but sort of over-cute. The major problem is that while the characters *are* portrayed as mistreated, it's  nothing compared to the stories of what actually did happen, and you kind of feel that someone decided to forget about the institutionalised rape to make a cosier film, and I don't think you get to pick and choose to that degree. The other problem is that while Emma Stone is absolutely a lovely light comedy actor, there's a scene where she's required to bring her best acting game, and she fails, sadly.

Roundup

Ok, so I watched a few films, and didn't blog them. And so catching up became a task, so I avoided it. Then I watched a few more, and didn't blog those either. And so catching up became a big task. And I avoided it some more. Long story short, I'm way behind. So, I'll do short capsule reviews, just so that future archaeologists won't think I slacked.