For whatever reason – maybe I am in need of a mental break – I’ve spent the last few evenings watching The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo. It’s based on a series of books I’ve not read called Millennium trilogy, and by an author I’d not heard of: Stieg Larsson. The first of the three books – “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”, “The Girl Who Played With Fire”, and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” – “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” was made into a movie of the same name and starring Daniel Craig (James Bond) and Rooney Mara of the remake of Nightmare On Elm Street.
I once said Rooney Mara was set to be the next Megan Fox, as her role in that horror movie seemed to point in that direction…
But after seeing her play Lisbeth Salander, I have to admit that I was mistaken. Rooney transformed herself to play what in Lisbeth Salander is the modern 21st Century heroine. She’s a lovely and tough female computer hacker with a punk rocker’s attitude, a great right hook, and a hair-trigger temper. She’s the latest in a line of movie and literary heroines of this style. Like female MMA star Gina Carano as Mallory Kane in Haywire, Zoe Saldana as Cataleya in Colombiana, or Milla Jovovich’s Alice the zombie slayer in Resident Evil.
But Mara’s Lisbeth Salander is tough to turn away from. She’s a ball of unpredictable, crusading, unsettled energy – untamed and at the same time directed and principled.
But, as many times as I watch this story, I can’t help but think there’s not just a better “Lisbeth Salander” movie to be done, but that we’ve not seen the ultimate incarnation of this new kind of heroine.
Stay tuned.