"It was a December evening I'll never forget: Dark and gloomy, the kind made all the gloomier by a draining shift at a dead-end retail job. The holiday season was fast approaching - and despite my love for Christmas, I didn't feel much like celebrating. Instead of a feel-good Christmas classic, I found myself craving a different kind of film. I wanted The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
"It was literally touted as the "Feel-Bad Movie of Christmas" in its cheeky ad campaigns, and its subject matter honored that brief to the letter. I can vividly remember the queasy feeling I was left with on my first watch, as expert hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) and slightly yuppie journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) entangled themselves in a stomach-churning murder mystery."
A December evening prompted a viewing of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo instead of a holiday classic. The 2011 film, directed by David Fincher, was marketed as the "Feel-Bad Movie of Christmas" and contains grim, gruesome subject matter. The film's portrayal of hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist entwines them in a stomach-churning murder mystery. Fincher's work consistently favors dreary, even depressing crime stories, beginning with Se7en in 1995. His staging of existential terror can feel oddly soothing, suggesting morbid curiosity and desensitization help viewers use dark stories as a coping mechanism.
#david-fincher #crime-thrillers #the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo #morbid-curiosity #coping-mechanisms
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