‘Dragon Tattoo’ affecting, not profound

I awoke this morning from a dream — maybe a nightmore — in which I was in a car, wrestling with a guy standing outside who was threatening me with a handgun. I had hold of the pistol’s barrel and was doing my best to twist the guy’s fingers. I’d just gotten to the point where his fingers were starting to crack when I woke up.

Yeah, i thought, what the …? Then I remembered: I’d sat through a previous afternoon’s screening of David Fincher’s adaptation of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” And it all fit. I didn’t feel any better, but at least I now knew where such a dark scenario came from

If you haven’t heard of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” then you’ve been living … well, if not under a rock then under some heavy toadstools. Written by the late Swedish journalist/novelist Stieg Larsson , “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is the first in a trilogy of novels that center on two major characters: Mikael Blomkvist , a muckraking magazine writer-editor, and Lizbeth Salander , the title character and one of the most fascinating literary creations to warrant a series of best-selling novels and two film series.

Following the first novel, which was published in Sweden in 2005 just a couple of months after Larsson’s death at age 50 of a heart attack, came two more: “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” The first film in the original Swedish-made series, was directed by Niels Orden Oplev, Daniel Alfredson directed the second two.

David Finche r directed the U.S. version, trailers for which have been playing since last summer. And I had been looking forward to the film, mostly because I am a big Fincher fan. I am, though, slightly disappointed. Maybe it’s because I have read all the books (each of which is in the 500- to 700-page vicinity) and seen all the Swedish movies. Hard to say. But while, as usual, I was knocked out by how Fincher directed the film, I was less enthused with how he handled the material.

In the end, I think Salander, despite a riveting makeover by American actress Rooney Mara , remains blurred and unknowable. And while I appreciate some changes made by screenwriter Steven Zaillian (namely more of an inclusion of Blomkvist’s publisher, played by Robin Wright), I think the film’s ending feels abbreviated. The full import of what happens doesn’t come from what Fincher shows but from what I bring to the movie. And that foreknowledge isn’t available to anyone coming to the film fresh.

Still, I can’t say that the movie failed to affect me. That dream/nightmare still has me in its power. Don’t think I’m going to be napping this afternoon.