My Weekend Crush

Noomi Rapace is Lisbeth Salander. This much I know. She embodies the character with a silent ferociousness turning her into a coiled ball with sinew and vengeance. She is justice’s angry right hand. You don’t see many characters like her on screen. The bixexual hacker with a penchant for piercings and a scowl that won’t stop. Noomi’s transformation was remarkable and complete. She went from the conventionally girlie to this tiny, leather-clad rock of post-punk androgyny. In short, she blew my mind and made The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for me. She is Lisbeth Salander. But she herself has said she no longer wants to play Lisbeth Salander.

Which brings me to the subject of the remake. Like everyone, I’m reluctant. When you love something in its original form, you are resistant to any reinterpretation. But then, you should know something about us Americans – we’re not terribly fond of subtitles, or foreign films in general. So that means a whole swath of the population has never met Lisbeth Salander, this remarkable heroine in the canon of film history. And they should, because women on screen don’t often get to be tough and avenging and guided by their own morality – or gay, for that matter.

So while I have real and unrelenting reservations, I am going to give the American The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a try. I am going to trust director David Fincher to bring this story to the masses. I am going to hope that Rooney Mara can embody her with the same fire and strength (check out her decked out as Salander for the first time in W magazine here). I am going to cross my fingers that Bond himself Daniel Craig will not overshadow the story and make it about him. I am going to do all of this because I think it’s a good story and I want more people to meet Lisbeth Salander.

But believe you me, I am also going to miss Noomi Rapace the whole damn time. Happy weekend, all.