Brian’s Review – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011/ R/ 158 minutes

When a young computer hacker is tasked with investigating a prying journalist, their separate missions become entangled amid a decades-old conspiracy. David Fincher directs this English adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s novel.

Rating: 4 out of 10

I have always had a hard time rating films harshly when they’re as well acted and technically executed as this movie is. Clearly, anyone who knows David Fincher’s work (Seven, Fight Club, Social Network etc.) knows that he is a very talented director with a keen visual style. But, this movie is such a god damn plot mess filled with way too many disposable scenes that I cannot hold back my disdain. It also doesn’t help that it runs at over 2 ½ hours and you would think that would be enough to give the viewer a clear idea of exactly what’s going on and exactly why but it doesn’t. The whole buildup is just a stupid and meandering mess. Daniel Craig’s character is a complete waste of his talents. I have always thought he is a very believable actor who delivers solid performances but the script here turns him into generic wallpaper with very little motivation. I kept wondering several times, “Why in the fuck is still investigating this?” Cause he’s paid double his normal rate? Who cares? Cause he’ll get information on someone who fucked him over and he gets revenge? That would work if we were ever given a background as to exactly what happened so the viewer would give more than half a shit. Now, why within the huge canvas of a 2 ½ hour movie that contains some of the slowest dialogue scenes isn’t there more background on the main characters? I’ll give credit to Rooney Mara. She’s by far the best thing in the film and brings and energy to her character that the rest of the film lacks.

The side plot about what she has to go through to pay her bills is far more interesting than the main story. But, it doesn’t exactly go to explain who any of these people are. I have no doubt that this movie is faithful to its literary source or all of the fans of Stieg Larsson’s novel would have been in an uproar. But, this was a film that demanded a re-write to make it more of a film and less of a book translation. Why couldn’t the film have started with Daniel Craig’s investigation that led to his subsequent downfall? Why couldn’t Rooney Mara’s character have had some flashbacks to explain where she came from? I was very much looking forward to seeing this film and am obviously disappointed with the end result. This is easily the weakest film in David Fincher’s excellent filmography.

Heidi the Crosseyed Opposum

A couple of us here at The Movie Brothers were beaten in our Oscar picks by a cross-eyed marsupial. (I’m won’t name names, Victor and Kyle)

Reuters is reporting a quirky story from Germany, where an opossum named Heidi guessed all but one of the Oscars, incorrectly picking “127 Hours” to win best picture, which instead went to “The King’s Speech.”

The 2-1/2-year-old opossum correctly predicted Natalie Portman (“Black Swan“) to win best actress and Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech.) as best actor during a series of appearances on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show on U.S. broadcaster ABC last week.

Heidi, who lives at the Leipzig Zoo in eastern Germany, attempted to duplicate the success of Germany’s oracle Octopus Paul, who correctly tipped each of Germany’s matches in last year’s soccer World Cup, as well as the final between Spain and Netherlands, according to the report.

Better luck next year Kyle and Victor! 😉

Our Oscar Picks

And the Oscar pick winner is….

We posted our Oscar picks last week to see who would get the most correct out of the major categories, and we have a three way tie between Brian, Lauren, and Matt.

The Oscar pick winners are:
Matt
Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Lauren
Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Brian
Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Animated feature: Toy Story 3

And the Oscar loser is….

We had a two-way tie. With three correct, Victor and Kyle are our Oscar Losers. Better luck next year, guys!

Oscar night is here

Oscar night is here! This is the pinnacle of film awards, and we are aways excited to see who wins.

We’ve made our picks (click here) and can’t wait to see how they unfold. For a complete list of the nominees, click here.

And the winners are…

Achievement in Art Direction: Alice in Wonderand
Achievement in Cinematography: Inception
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Animated Short: The Lost Thing
Best Original Screenplay: The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
Best Foriegn Film: In a Better World
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Original Score: The Social Network
Best Sound Mixing:  Inception
Best Sound Editing: Inception
Best makeup: The Wolfman
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderand
Life Action Short Film: God of Love
Feature-length Documentary: Inside Job
Short Subject Documentary: Strangers No More
Achievment in Visual Effects: Inception
Best Original Song: We Belong Together, from the film Tangled
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Picture: The King’s Speech 

Our Oscar Picks

Who will be the Oscar winners…
and the Oscar losers?

Oscar night is upon us, at long last! Here are the picks from our regular contributors. Our writers are all making their selections, and we’ll see who the most prolific prognosticator is… and who isn’t. Click here to see the full nominee list. We’re only picking the main categories. I mean, who really gives a crap about art direction awards? Well, we do, but we won’t bore you with that. The Oscars are Sunday at 8 p.m. east coast time on ABC. The majority are picking “The King’s Speech” for best picture, but after that, it’s a jumble.

Matt

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Brian

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Annette Benning, The Kids Are All Right
Supporting Actress: Hailee Stenfield, True Grit
Animated feature: Toy Story 3

Kyle

Best Picture: Black Swan
Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, The Black Swan
Best Actor: James Franco, 127 Hours
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, The Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Lauren

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Fighter
Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Victor

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Best Supporting Actor: Geoffery Rush, The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Fighter
Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Fincher directs this Oscar-nominated tale of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) — a man who was born old and wrinkled but grows younger as the years go by — with a screenplay adapted from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The plot throws linear conventions upside down to explore love, loss and memory from the perspective of a character living under incredibly unique — and unexpectedly difficult — circumstances. Cate Blanchett co-stars.

Brian
Rating: 9 out of 10

Every once in a while there is a director who comes along who is so special that we’re lucky to have been alive when they were creating films.  The first time I saw “Seven” I knew a new genius had arrived.  His name was Robert Paulson…err… David Fincher (If you’ve seen Fight Club, you’ll understand the joke). He has since gone on to do the underrated “The Game”, “Zodiac”, and “Fight Club” (One of the top 10 best films of the 1990’s;  I’ll do that list soon).  So, it was with little hesitation that I saw this movie despite its boring trailer.  Well, I was not disappointed.

Fincher is a marvel with a camera.  There is a visual style to his work that is completely identifiable and unique.   Every shot almost looks like a painting.  If that wasn’t enough, his work with actors and storytelling is equally good.  He was always known as someone who could make a gripping tale but rarely an emotional one.  Benjamin Button proves he’s adept at that as well.  There is an aura of originality to this film that is almost otherworldly, like a lucid dream.  You become involved with these characters and when their hearts break, so does yours.  It takes a talent to pull off that feat.  If there’s one criticism I’d point of this film, it’s that it does take a long time getting to the end.  I suppose it’s hard with a film like this where you could fall in love with every shot to leave some of it on the cutting room floor.