This was the second movie I went to see this past weekend. I suppose it was about what I expected. Which is to say, a gritty (at times unnecessarily so) mystery. Daniel Craig makes the film, for me. The girl is fine enough as a character and I suppose brilliantly played by Rooney Mara.

Problem one for me is that a girl like that would be a huge drag to be around. I don't dig that sort of coarse, angry, filthy female, so I felt no emotional connection to her. Like many of the people around her in the story, I found her off-putting to say the least.

That said; Her past is such that that's about all that could become of someone that emotionally and physically abused. In that regard, they presented the character perfectly.

Daniel Craig was fantastic at playing someone completely different from Bond and I never once thought of Bond. Dude is versatile.

It's long (2hrs, 40 mins) and at times it felt like it. Not so much that I was looking at my watch, but there were some passages that seemed to take a little too long.

Problem two for me;

Spoiler - or warning;

I'm not terribly impressed with the trend lately to show scenes that are intensely graphic and disturbing, solely for the purpose of being able to say the film is extremely realistic.

There is a rape scene that, to me, seemed unnecessarily realistic and long. I don't need to see three minutes of a graphic depiction of rape to understand how horrible and emotionally disturbing a crime that is. Nor do I particularly want to sit in a theater and be presented with scenes that I want to look away from (and I did for a bit).
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Based on the muted grey cinematography, Daniel Craig's fantastic performance, and a good dose of wealthy family with a dark past mystery, I give it 3 out of 5 framed flowers.