Eye Candy #590 - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:  The first of the American adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy novels, this film skews heavily towards the book’s original Swedish title: “Men Who Hate Women”.  Mikael Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig) is a disgraced journalist who was successfully sued for libel.  He is hired by an elderly Swedish business magnate Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to write his memoirs and look into the disappearance and presumed murder of his niece some 40 years ago, while she and the rest of their extended family were summering on their private island.   This involves him interacting with other members of Vanger’s family, not all of whom are receptive to Blomkvist’s task and all of whom have skeletons in their respective closets.  To aid in his investigation, Blomkvist hires an investigator, Lisbeth Salander (played extremely well by Rooney Mara), an emotionally and socially isolated computer hacker with baggage of her own, including various abusive relationships dating all the way back to her childhood.  Salander develops a close relationship with Blomkvist through the course of their investigation as they discover the trail of a serial killer obsessed with Biblically-inspired mutilation.  This is a pared-down version of the novel’s plot (most of the financial thriller aspects of the last ¼ of the book are handled minimally), but still runs at over 2 ½ hours (it doesn’t feel that long, though).  The film includes heavy doses of nudity, violence towards women, profanity, rape, incest, murder, and torture…it’s not a movie for the faint of heart.  In fact, the rape scene is darn near one of most disturbing scenes ever committed to film and should make anyone uncomfortable.  The script is good and serves the plot well, the performances from the main and supporting cast are uniformly excellent, including Joely Richardson, Steven Berkoff (in a rare nice guy role) and Stellan Skarsgard.  Those who haven’t read the books may get lost in the weeds – some characters are introduced without identifying who they are, particularly Salander’s hacker friends.  Director David Fincher made his bones with dark thrillers like “Se7en” and this film is more in that vein than his more recent works like “The Social Network” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.  A very watchable film.  A sequel covering the second Millenium novel is in the works.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”   

Eye Candy #589 - "Drive" (2011)

Drive (2011): Ryan Gosling plays a mechanic and Hollywood stunt driver that moonlights as a getaway driver for hire (he’s never given any name).  His fixer, Shannon, keeps him in jobs working for various no-good nicks, including mobster Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks, playing way against type as the ruthless Bernie) and his second, Nino (Ron Perlman), who want the driver to race a stock car for them.  Into his life walks his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), who the driver develops an attachment to, and her little boy.  Shortly thereafter, Irene’s husband Standard (Carlos Isaac) comes home from prison and the driver agrees to help Standard pay off an outstanding debt to a local hood, Cook.  Then everything goes pear-shaped, as the driver finds himself knee-deep in a million dollars of dirty money and a double-cross, with the bodies piling up around him as Bernie and company start to clean house to cover their tracks.  So the driver takes it upon himself to get Irene and her son free and clear.  A violent film (hammers to face, people getting their skulls kicked in, stabs to the throat and eye), but it’s a simple, neat little noir drama with good-to-great performances all around.  Director Nicholas Winding Refn has directed some great films I’ve enjoyed immensely (I love “Bronson”) and this one is solid, not a single false note.  From the 80’s-ish soundtrack and title scheme (hot pink cursive lettering), to the lighting and cinematography (this looks and feels like a Michael Mann movie to me), it’s all well done.  It clocks in at 100 minutes but feels shorter.  Sure, the plot isn’t treading any new ground, but the execution makes it worthwhile.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”

Eye Candy #588 - "The Whistleblower"

The Whistleblower: This film is based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who took a job with a private military contractor Dyncorp (called Democra in the film) who had a contract with the UN International Police force in Bosnia in the late 1990’s.  In her capacity as head of gender affairs, she finds himself hip-deep in a sex trafficking conspiracy involving other Democra personnel that buy and sell women from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  She finds herself working against her fellow employees, who are predominantly men, and a leadership structure more interested in covering its rear and keeping its healthy government contracts (Dyncorp has also had contracts in other countries including Afghanistan and Iraq, none of which have passed with some sort of controversy, including other allegations of sexual slavery), than in right and wrong, resulting in her wrongful termination for whistleblowing.  No criminal charges were ever filed against the employees of Dyncorp that were responsible for trafficking young girls for sex in the Balkans.  A perfect example of a contemporary instance of the banality of evil - normalizing the unthinkable so as to become routine.  Rachel Weisz plays Bolkovac with a sure hand, with David Strathairn, Vanessa Redgrave, and Benedict Cumberbatch in support (though Cumberbatch and Redgraves’ roles are very small; Cumberbatch does do a phenomenal American accent).  This film should make you very angry.   Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”