LISBETH SALANDER - CONTRAST REVIEW -ENG-

11:00 | Etiquetas: action, CONTRAST, english, European, mystery, popcorn, suspense

CONTRAST.

Two films. One single story. One, dealing with the huge responsibility of being true to its original material, the other, trying to be original in its own way without overshadowing it predecessor. We'd like to invite you to enjoy our review of 'MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR' and 'THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO'.

This is our new section in which we'll compare and contrast different films all based on the same material. What most people call remakes or reboots.

Most people say American takes on European films will never come close in artistic levels and Hollywood films are blockbuster flops.

In frontseatreview we don't think it's fair to judge film productions because they have higher and better income sources to count on. Its true that the artistic aspects in cinema are the most important parts, but lets keep in mind that the film industry is a medium of entertainment as well. In -CONTRAST- we'll analyze the small but important differences between films, being a film based on a previous version or one from another nation.

Our first entry, hopefully, will demonstrate that not all remakes should be immediately discarded as bad ones.

In 2009 the Swedish film industry decided to make a film trilogy based on Stieg Larsson's novels that tell us about hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The first story tells us about the search for a young woman who was murdered 40 years earlier by a member of her own family.

Henrik Vanger, owner of the corporate group Vanger hires Blomkvist to see if he can solve the mystery behind the young girl's murder. He hires Salander to help him catch the killer.

Little by little they follow clues that will lead them into not just one murder but also a series of brutal killings committed by the same aggressor.

In 2011 acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker David Fincher gave us his own version of the first story. Everything mentioned before from the Swedish film is just the same in the American version.

The most important differences in the story:

Reading a double review is probably long enough, so we'll just stick to film and leave the novels aside. Apparently in the Swedish film it was very important to show the fact that Blomkvist had a close relationship with the young girl murdered, Harriet. She was his babysitter and took care of him since his father worked for the Vanger group.

In the American version this is never mentioned. They tell us Henrik Vanger hires Blomkvist after having him investigated and realizing he is a good man.

In the American version the murders of other young women are taken into consideration but without taking it too deeply; they mention them in a small sequence but go back to the main plot of finding what happened to Harriet right after.

In the Swedish film the main characters go searching for more information than just what they find on the Internet. They travel to all the places where the murders took place and even interrogate family members or cops that had something to do with previous investigations.

In our opinion the first difference about the previous relationship between Blomkvist and the Vanger family is better left out. It certainly gives him a bigger motive to try and find his babysitter's killer, but we believe that the American version does a better job of showing he is a good man and tries to find a killer for the simple fact of stopping him regardless of any other reason.

The second difference was much better played in the Swedish version. The trips Salander and Blomkvist take are key to develop trust in one another. In the American film this aspect was covered by in the Swedish one it is much better understood.

The main players:

The character everyone wants to see is the girl with the dragon tattoo. Both Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara play Lisbeth Salander brilliantly. She is anti-charismatic, hard to relate to but easy to understand why she is who she is. A different heroine, set in our time and with enough attitude to be trustworthy and feared all at once.

Opinion:

Both films tell Harriet's story in a clear and concise way. They take their time developing the main characters, show that the original material is very specific and are loyal to it and the most important thing- they don't take alternate routes to reach the same conclusion.

Nothing disappoints more than different endings for one same story (Tim Burton's 'Planet of the apes' anyone?)

Conclusion:

Both are very good films. Having seen the American version before the Swedish one, we can say that neither one fails to entertain.

Ties are boring. Sometimes you hear neither one deserved to lose. You won't see ties here. We declare one film a winner for one reason alone- The editing. One film keeps us at the edge of our seats with anguish and wondering who the killer is. Blomkvist and Salander's detective work is much more mysterious and intriguing. Therefore we call 'THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO' the better choice.