The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

After a libel conviction damages his reputation, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by elderly industrialist Henrik Vanger to look into the disappearance of Vanger's niece, who vanished decades earlier. Mikael relocates to the isolated Vanger estate and sifts through family records, old grudges, and buried leads. He reluctantly teams up with Lisbeth Salander, a guarded hacker with a photographic memory and an uncompromising streak, and the two form an uneasy investigative partnership. Their work unravels layers of secrecy within the Vanger family and points to wider corruption and violence. The film emphasizes methodical detective work and a cold, tense atmosphere rather than melodramatic reveals.

Directed by David Fincher with a screenplay by Steven Zaillian, this 2011 American version adapts Stieg Larsson's novel. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara headline a supporting cast that includes Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, and other seasoned performers worldwide.

It opened to strong interest and drew significant audiences thanks to its star power and stark tone. The movie performed well commercially worldwide, helping cement Fincher's reputation for adult, genre-tinged thrillers and proving that dark, deliberate adaptations can find viewers.

Critics generally responded positively, reflected in a solid audience vote average of 7.378/10 from over 7,400 votes. Reviewers highlighted Fincher's chilly direction and Mara's intense, restrained performance, along with Craig's taut presence. The film probes institutional corruption, gendered violence, privacy, and the slow grind of investigative work, and moral ambiguity.

Lisbeth Salander's portrayal lodged in popular culture, influencing fashion, tattooed antihero archetypes, and debate about representing trauma on screen. The movie helped introduce Larsson's books to a wider English-speaking audience and reinforced Fincher's visual style as a benchmark for dark, methodical crime cinema in the 2010s, and sparked wider debate.