The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Could the use of Trent Reznor and Karen O’s slick, overproduced and largely pointless cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ on the trailer of David Fincher’s remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo be a telling indication of the film’s unambitious intentions? Or will Fincher’s film take Stieg Larsson’s novel, and the 2009 screen adaptation by Nils Arden Oplev, as a springboard to something more interesting, more subversive, more cinematic?

The trailer gives little away. It consists entirely of a series of flashing images, with no hint as to the film’s story or structure. Fans of the book and the earlier movie will recognise a number of familiar scenes present and correct – albeit with new faces in the key roles – but for newcomers this will just be a parade of violent but essentially meaningless images.

Still, it all looks good. Fincher’s decision to shoot the film in Sweden seems to have paid off, with wintry landscapes, white skies and moody, pine-panelled houses in abundance. And his cast is, of course, unimpeachable: Daniel Craig looks suitably harried and headmasterly in the lead role of questing journo Mikael Blomqvist, with Rooney Mara in full leathery Marilyn Manson garb as his protector/source/lover Lisbeth Salander.

The cast is rounded out with an impressive roster of American and European talent – Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, Joely Richardson, Geraldine James, um, Julian Sands – though Stellan Skarsgård is the only official Scandinavian in the central cast. One thing that’s missing from this trailer is any dialogue, so there’s no chance to confirm rumours that Fincher demanded his cast put on Swedish accents – a stylistic choice that, if true, could reduce the entire film to farce.

It’s still hard to say what the point of it all is. After Zodiac and The Social Network, Fincher is on a roll, which leads us to assume that there must be more to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo than a simple rehash of old material. But there’s little in the trailer to get us really excited.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo screens from Thu 12 Jan 2012

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