The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has just taken me on an emotional rollercoaster. Not the in the conventional way where viewers seem to go from happy to sad. But in the way where I am confused by what im supposed to be feeling, taking me through stages of shock and then suspense.
I have always been weary when talking about films, which stem from books in an artistic way. Partly because more than nine times out of ten they don’t live up to the books, but also because they become widely mainstream and although that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does make me question them. Film versions of a series of books have often been economically successful (such as Harry Potter and Twilight) but haven’t always satisfied my opinions of them, as more often than not, large chunks of the books, which allow you to enter the characters world, are cut out to allow the film to be shorter than 10hours!!! 
I went to the cinema to see this film with no pre-conceived ideas, which was a conscious choice made by myself. This is because I am the type of person who doesn’t necessarily like films described as “thrillers, mystery’s or action”, but I took a chance with it because of reviews it had received and peers raving about it. Im glad I took that chance.
The only way to describe the majority of the film is “Uncomfortable viewing”. Throughout certain points I was surprised at what the BBFC actually allowed the filmmakers to keep in. Graphic scenes of rape, the victims being of both sexes were shown. At first I was apprehensive about how necessary it was to actually show this, but as the film progressed I realised that these scenes allowed the audience to understand and quite possibly emphasise with the main character. The whole film is based around a unsolved crime which two people are trying to solve, however this synopsis would be too simple and as the film progresses, four storylines come into place. Although I think it was done quite well it did seem a bit choppy in parts.
In my opinion when creating a murder mystery type of film where pieces of evidence are collected, the investigation would almost have to be made physically in the script development stage to make sure that there are no gaps or loopholes in the film, to make sure that nothing is missed out. Although I couldn’t see anything that had been, everything moved very quickly, as if the backstory wasn’t strong enough to support the realistic values it held.
It does appear that all I’ve done is moan about the film, but in fact I really enjoyed it. Yes, It did make me leave the cinema feeling emotionally confused as I didn’t really know how I was meant to feel throughout but when thinking about it…. Doesn’t that make it successful? It is SO common in mainstream cinema at the moment to view a film and then come out and all you can say about it was whether you liked it or not. Often people who study or teach the media will try and get you to say why you liked it or didn’t, but often you don’t really know why. Therefore in my opinion its rare for a film with a high status to make you feel something more than whether you were entertained or not and this is what this films has done to me. It made me feel that when I was leaving the cinema I wanted to come home and write about it, and surely that just shows that it actually had quite an effect on me.
It addressed issues which people, especially Britain shy away from, Sensitive issues such as rape or sexuality which people would much rather be blissfully unaware of. Im not criticizing these people as they’re were a couple of the issues shown that I would do the same thing with. One thing is for certain though, in my opinion it broke down boundaries within mainstream cinema, which fundamentally all held reasons within the film, for why they were shown.
To be honest though, I wouldn’t rush to see the film again anytime soon, as it did make me feel more uncomfortable that it did entertained, possibly because of the graphic nature of a couple of the scenes, but a key thing is, it did have an emotional effect on me. Which I think is what cinema is all about.
. David Bird Media . 