David Fincher directs Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Christopher Plummer in this remake of the Swedish mystery bestseller.

Fair to say this suffered coming out so soon after the Noomi Rapace trilogy. With a bit of distance this epic but slick adaptation proves just what a master Fincher is. The casting of the relatively unknown Mara is devastatingly effective, Craig plays a crumpled, wimpish anti-Bond efficiently, this is the role you wish he got further entries in. Their convergent storylines build well until the third act where they start working together… with horny benefits. All the serial killings, predatory sex beasts and revenge have that trademark Se7en nastiness to them. Yet they land differently when glimpsed as short sudden shocks between all this austere, polished prestige. The colour has been faded out – snow, grey, admin. I think Fincher took this one on to try and tell a ridiculously dense mystery as visually as possible. Dial back the exposition, fetishise the evidence, cum to the method. As we watch analogue materials be digitised we piece together a multi strand enigma, watch the past become reanimated. Oh yeah, you can tell what hooked Fincher in here and it wasn’t Sony’s unlimited budget or Craig’s immaculate winter wardrobe. That 007 inspired hard R credit sequence of an oil and cables orgy to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing Led Zep… well, that’s cinema, kids! Cover versions can be a blast.

8

Perfect Double Bill: The Girl In the Spider’s Web (2018)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/