The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - review

Fortunately the book is virtually foolproof if you leave it to speak for itself, as he has done, thereby delivering a decent movie. He has also set it in Sweden rather than some US substitute, which is a great benison. But the Swedish variant, now being re-released in London, so you can choose between the two, is arguably darker and more genuinely scary - and it has Michael Nyqvist and the extraordinary Noomi Rapace as the reporter and his strange fellow investigator.

Fincher's stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, more than capable substitutes, and an excellent cast of subsidiary characters that includes Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright and Joely Richardson. Despite such names, there still seems to be something missing, however - perhaps that is something to do with the plot no longer seeming fresh.

For the uninitiated, Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, a reporter convicted of libel who is then engaged by an ancient and wealthy Swedish industrialist (Plummer) to discover what really happened when his beloved niece disappeared some 40 years before. The curious uncle believes she was murdered by a member of his brood, a family he describes as "the most detestable people you are ever likely to meet".

Blomkvist links up with Lisbeth Salander (Mara), a wildly antisocial hacker and investigator, once labelled mentally incompetent by the Swedish social services, who is initially hired to do a background check on him. Meanwhile, she is raped by her newly assigned legal guardian (Yorick van Wageningen) and seeks revenge, possibly on the world.

Fincher's film has an affair developing between Blomkvist and Salander that is more straightforward than the prickly, on-off liaison in the Swedish film and less easy to believe. There is also a patch three-quarters of the way through when the director appears to let go of the twisting story. All the same, he uses the Swedish environment well, whether the icy Norrland coast or the cold minimalism of Stockholm.

Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth has done a first-class job. What people will want to know is whether Mara matches Rapace as the elfin-like, punkish Lisbeth.

The answer is that she does, mirroring Rapace brilliantly at every turn - and Craig, though not the rumpled, slightly desolate character Nyqvist gave us, is commendably far from his Bond persona.

Opens on Boxing Day.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Cert: 18