What Was Wrong With David Fincher's 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'?
|By- Dhruv Chhabra|
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a film praised by many. I watched it expecting a thrilling ride full of mystery and suspense but ended up feeling startled by the issues the film had. As it completes 9 years of its release today, let me break down all the issues I had with the film and why I wouldn't want to celebrate this film as a piece of art.
The film’s central character or protagonist is Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) but the plot also focuses and makes us spend time with Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). The plot makes the story more complex as I felt I knew more about the secondary character (Lisbeth) rather than Mikael. The plot begins at a point where Mikael's life has been ruined and suddenly he gets a call to solve a 40 year old murder mystery. We then see the plot getting more complex as the investigation begins. But as the plot (without introducing her relevance to the story) starts making us know about Lisbeth, I felt that I was watching a different film. As a viewer, I suddenly felt confused and the effort that I made to get involved goes in vain as I am suddenly withdrawn from the story of the protagonist. Towards the end, I felt too muzzled and disturbed by the film’s various sub plots, that the ending felt like a relief.
The non-linear narration and the overtly complex plot made the film rhythm-less. There was progress in the case of Blomkvist but the two characters on which the story focuses so much on, meet at a very later point in the film giving too much time for the build-up. The rhythm feels off but the investigation flows decently well.
The biggest issue I had was with Lisbeth’s character. Director displayed her as the woman the world needs. But to me, she wasn’t the woman to look up to. The director looked at her as someone androgynous, who wears monochromatic black outfits, speaks very less, has an edgy look and almost reflects the image of a superhero. The fact that she is raped makes you feel disgusted because the act is such. But what angers me is the fact that she raped him back as revenge and she wore a smudged mascara as a mask while doing so, the look felt very Daredevil-ish and fictitious. Rape was used as a plot device to make Lisbeth feel for the victims who were murdered by Martin. It felt offensive and disturbing because the revenge to someone raping you CAN NOT be you raping them back. Moreover, that incident never comes up again and never shows the mental, traumatic or emotional stress a girl faces after such assault again and again. Was she supposed to be strong-headed? Because she seemed like a cold, confused introvert. Rape is a heinous crime as it is and we did not need to see it to feel bad for the victims.
Mikael and Lisbeth meet halfway through the film and immediately after, they are shown sleeping together. How did the emotions build? Where was the connection? Mikael comes off as a desperate man in this context. When the film tells us that Mikael is the smart, cunning investigator (from the very beginning), we tend to believe so. But towards the end, he becomes the ‘easily convinced’ guy and Lisbeth becomes the saviour. Which could have been good, but it made me feel confused regarding a basic trait- What did his character stand for? He left Lisbeth for Erika in the end which made his character even less likeable. Lisbeth is heartbroken and instead of confronting, she decides to walk away which displays for a more human side to the robot-like girl. I wish I could see more of that then just that goth-fashioned girl whose appearance was the most striking quality about her.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is an example of a feminist story made by the male gaze, and it became the victim of male gaze accompanied by strikingly slow storytelling which lead to its failure to sustain my interest.
*The opinions expressed are personal and I understand that your opinions might differ*
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