The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
We’re going with the David Fincher adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for this list; however, if you haven’t seen the Swedish-language versions of the popular Millennium series, do yourself a favor and check them out as well. The series features the late Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace in the lead roles, and they’re quite good.
Once again, Fincher proves he’s the master of psychological thrillers while maintaining respect for the source material. Starring Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, this 2011 film brought an auteur perspective to the intriguing storyline. Yet, it’s mind-blowing how more people didn’t jump onto the Millennium bandwagon after this film.
While the movie didn’t perform quite as expected at the box office, it certainly did the book justice and there can be no complaints from the fans about this adaptation. Despite the positive praise, however, Sony has decided to do what it does best: reboot.
Where The Wild Things Are (2009)
Adapting a children’s book is never easy. Quite often, filmmakers fail to capture how powerful a child’s imagination really is when they read the book and the subsequent movie feels flat in comparison. That’s why everyone was blown away with just how well Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are embodied the heart and soul of the fabled 1963 picture book created by Maurice Sendak.
Combining live-action, costumes, and CGI into a formidable story, Jonze managed to bring this beloved tale to life in ways that we could never imagine. It was magic in the purest sense of the word, conjuring up all the fantasy and feelings this decades-old book instilled in us when we first read it.
The novel is easily one of the most important pieces of literature created this century, and Jonze’s film brought the cinematic prestige to this tale that it deserved. It wasn’t just a great children’s movie; it was a great movie all around.