Wednesday , March 27 2024
A discredited journalist and a punk computer hacker form an unlikely alliance in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

An Unlikely Alliance at the Heart of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

A discredited investigative journalist, his reputation for integrity in lies in tatters. A 20-something genius hacker, part punk-girl, part computer nerd, her past, a trail of fragmented mosaic of victimization and abuse. Each is trying to cope—one with a past from which she cannot escape, and the other from a present from which he must. They come together, united in a job that will threaten danger yet may ultimately offer each the redemption they need. Meet Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), the heroes of David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  

From the beginning, their relationship sparks with tension; Blomkvist is much older than Lisbeth. With a teenage daughter from a long dissolved marriage, Blomkvist has long been involved with Erika Berger (Robin Wright) Millennium Magazine’s co-owner.

Lisbeth would seem an unlikely partner for Mikael: troubled, emotionally fragile—her Goth look and punk attitude at odds with his established life. But as they often do, circumstances throw together the two disparate personalities.

At the outset, Salander knows much more about Mikael than he does about her; she’d been hired to hack into his Internet imprint. Bank records, emails—the whole lot. An intrusive and highly illegal background check initiated by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to ascertain Blomkvist’s suitability for a particularly delicate freelance job.

As Blomkvist begins his work with Vanger, however, it becomes clear that he needs an assistant—one with the ability to research so deeply between the lines that it skirts legal boundaries. Pointed to Salander as the ideal research assistant, the two embark on a dangerous journey—to learn the truth about the disappearance 40 years earlier of one Harriet Vanger, then a teenage girl.

As they continue to investigate and creep ever-closer to the truth, Blomkvist’s life is endangered, a brush with death leaving him more vulnerable and certainly less guarded than he’d been to that point. Lisbeth is there for him, and it is within that context that their relationship deepens into something more than simple business partners.

 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be released on Blu-ray and DVD March 20, and is now available for pre-order.

About Barbara Barnett

A Jewish mother and (young 🙃) grandmother, Barbara Barnett is an author and professional Hazzan (Cantor). A member of the Conservative Movement's Cantors Assembly and the Jewish Renewal movement's clergy association OHALAH, the clergy association of the Jewish Renewal movement. In her other life, she is a critically acclaimed fantasy/science fiction author as well as the author of a non-fiction exploration of the TV series House, M.D. and contributor to the book Spiritual Pregnancy. She Publisher/Executive Editor of Blogcritics, (blogcritics.org).

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