Having already seen the 2009 version by Niels Arden Oplev I was a bit reticent to screen a big budget Hollywood version of it. Nevertheless, Fincher's version is an excellent film in its own right, and is entertaining enough to satisfy fans of the earlier version. (Having not read any of the books I can't say whether fans of the novels will be satisfied.)
That the movie is so entertaining is, I think, part of the problem. This is a movie that is lacking in soul, not a problem for many films, but for one with such a weighty theme, enough to give me pause. I don't know if we really should be entertained by two-and-a-half hours of brutality towards women, even if the bad guys lose in the end. Fincher certainly has a history of making hugely entertaining movies about the gruesome and grisly (his first two features were Alien3 and Se7en, after all), but The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo isn't a fantasy piece, and violence against women isn't a subject for light entertainment. That the film (like its Swedish predecessor) doesn't shy away from the ugliness of this is a testament to good intentions, if nothing else.
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