Thankfully, Fincher keeps things squarely in Sweden but the fact that the film remains in one country (albeit different locations within it) makes it feel a whole lot less epic that the usual continent-hopping Bond undertakes on his missions. I guess this is all part of keeping the series fresh and interesting.
A director known for dark and dirty work such as Alien3 and the music video for Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl, Fincher, clearly a man who thinks of himself as some sort of auteur, brings his gloomy style to James Bond who, for some unexplained reason, goes under the alias Mikael Blomkvist for the entire film. Even M (now inexplicably recast with Robin Wright in the role, who is younger and blonder than dear Dame Judi - presumably in order to allow Bondkvist to sleep with her) now calls him "Mikael". 007 has gone so deep undercover, he's also lost his number, as well as his name.
Even the grand old institution of MI6 has undergone rebranding and is currently called 'Millennium'. David, mate, the turn of the century was over a decade ago. Get with the times, bro! Millenium's offices even look like a newspaper organisation and Bond now takes down villains by writing exposes about them, rather than infiltrating their secret lair and beating them in the face with his well-heeled foot. Formerly well-heeled, I should say, since 007 (not that he goes by this number anymore) has undergone something of a makeover since last we saw him.
Although never mentioned, Vesper's death in Casino Royale, which I thought had been dealt with in Quantum, continues to hit Bond hard (unless Girl takes place between those two films?) and he has really let himself go. He still wears sharp suits occasionally but only for court appearances etc but, for most of the film, he is a dishevelled wreck with bed hair, stubble, bad dress sense and, most disconcertingly of all, he has exchanged his traditional Vodka Martini for a coffee addiction. At least Bond has once again taken up smoking, as did previous Bondkvists Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton.
Also troubling - and a presumed by-product of his grief for Vesper - Bond really feels the cold and gets scared when he's shot at. To add insult to injury, when a bullet nearly hits Bondkvist as he stalks the Swedish wilderness, rather than take cover and smoke out his enemy before deftly disarming him and giving him a good hiding, Bondkvist instead turns tail and runs away like a little girl, or, like a little girl might do when shot at, I mean, he doesn't actually run like a little girl, not that I know what they run like, nor what it is like to shoot at one. I only hunt game.
Regarding other aspects of 007 tradition, the well-known theme tune and gun barrel logo have gone for Girl but I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies that David Fincher at least opted to keep the established pre-titles teaser - even if it is just two old men talking about a flower - prior to the most disturbing title sequence the series has ever witnessed. Whilst The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a fine, Bondian title, reminiscent of The Man With The Golden Gun and there are echoes of the oil-drenched nudey ladies from The World Is Not Enough's opening titles, Girl's are a choppily edited affair that I think featured a brief glimpse of Daniel Craig (I saw his name, at least), along with various shots of keyboards, wires, flames, dragons and women being beaten up. Good Lord, this really is a departure! Who the blazes does this Fincher fellow think he is?!
The titular Girl herself is radically different from previous Bond Girls. She has what I presume is a fairly ordinary Swedish name, Lisbeth Salander - quite a cool name for a Bond Girl - and at least has a strong character with excellent computer skills, which is in keeping with Craig's Bond women not being dumb babes for James to save. Not only does he not save her, *she* has to deliver *him* from the jaws of death near the film's end! What the bloody hell is going on here? Have the Bond producers gone completely stark raving bonkers in their efforts to keep fresh their fifty-year-old franchise?! Blimey, whatever next? Handing over the next film to the bloke who directed American Beauty, having Bond shot by Moneypenny, then showing M's death as well by the end of the film? If that's where this series is headed, then I think I'll just stick to Tom Cruise's Bond-already-did-that Mission: Impossible films!! With Girl, the Bond franchise may have just once again surfed the CGI wave (e.g., gone completely over the top, even by its own standards) as with Die Another Day...
It's as if Fincher, obviously given carte blanche to do whatever the damn-it-all-to-Hell he pleases, thought that the best way to reinvent the franchise was to take a flame to everything that makes Bond Bond and create art from the ashes, messing with our minds by recasting M but also bringing back Octopussy's Steven Berkoff to play Dirch Frode.
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| Berkoff as Orlov in Octopussy |
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| Berkoff as Frode in Girl |
Fincher even goes so far as to make the Bond Girl the one with all the balls. Bondkvist is relegated to the rather feminine role of a writer - a disgraced one at that - who, whilst he still sleeps with other men's wives, needs a woman to save him. Bond is now the damsel in distress.
Near the end, Bondkvist is caught sneaking away from the villain's lair, which he has just had a snoop around. The villain, who at least has the cool name of Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgard), invites Bondkvist in for a drink, where our hero manages to nab a kitchen knife as he nervously makes small talk with his host, who clearly knows Bondkvist is up to no good. However, our hero lets fear get the better of him and completely wastes his opportunity to escape. Instead, he finds himself strapped up to a device that I presume is Fincher's twisted attempt at the sort of death trap concocted by Bond villains of old, like Goldfinger's emasculating laser table. Girl has the same effect on Bond altogether and the villain has Bondkvist chained up in a sort of a neck brace, making him sit awkwardly on a stool, having dropped the first, spiked, drink Vanger gave him. He is given another, which he physically cannot lift to his mouth with his chained wrist. Sitting uncomfortably and not being able to consume his drink. Bloody torture.
In fairness, it gets a whole lot worse. Vanger, while explaining his villainous schemes to Bondkvist (something about the former raping his own daughter, as well as torturing and killing other young women. Hardly suitable stuff for a Bond villain, really. Better if he'd fed them to a shoal of Piranha, I think), hoists him up so he's dangling from the ceiling by his hands, whilst Vanger suffocates him with a plastic bag. This is like Bond's torture scene was Fincher's favourite from Casino Royale and he's trying to top it. Its ending is even the same, with Bond requiring an ally to help him escape. Surely the great 007 could have got out of this himself and taken care of the mad sex-pest bondage man?
Sadly not, as it's up to Lisbeth to take care of business, which she does with only slightly less violence than she metes out earlier to Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen), her legal 'guardian'. The only thing that got me through the scenes where he sexually abuses her was the fact that he resembles the singer Michael Ball. It'll be difficult watching him perform now - singing, I mean, not perform sexually - without imagining him committing unspeakable acts of sexual violence on young women. I guess 'love' really does change everything. Nothing actually will ever, ever be the same after watching this film.
Come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was even a Bond film?
Images courtesy of the film's Facebook page, Google and Michael Ball's official website.
