Sneak Peek at David Denby’s Embargo-Breaking Dragon Tattoo review

The New York Post’s Lou Lumenick writes up the only piece of news about the story that broke this morning, which was Sony announcing that the New Yorker’s David Denby was planning on breaking the imposed embargo on reviews for Dragon Tattoo. As far as we know, December 13 is the date any of us can write about it. However, once I heard Denby was going with his, I knew there would be no holding back the floodgates. Thompson on Hollywood’s Anne Thompson said on Twitter that once a major publication goes live with their reviews, all bets are off. Since I gave my word to the studio about it, I won’t yet name Rooney Mara’s Girl the performance of the year and I won’t get give my thoughts about this film. But if others break the embargo and Sony is okay with it I will post my early review.

In Lumenick’s piece he reveals that Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman and New Yorker’s David Denby opposed the NYFCC date change (I happen to agree with them on that – was premature, a bad choice and unnecessary) and apparently in protest of that he is breaking the embargo. Of course, it isn’t going to really hurt Denby; “you can’t come to Vegas and talk to a guy like Moe Green like THAT!” Well of course you can, if you’re Michael Corleone. And if you’re a major film critic with the New Yorker you can do whatever the hell you please – Sony is still going to want you to review their films.

So, what else does Lumenick’s article reveal about Denby’s review? Good stuff:

Denby saw the film on Nov. 28, the day before the New York Film Critics Circle voted on its annual awards (“Dragon Tattoo” came away empty handed). Before the screening, Denby — supported by Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly — vehemently opposed the organization’s decision to vote on awards two weeks earlier than usual, and in several e-mails urged us to delay the vote until after we’d seen “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” a movie most of us haven’t even been invited to yet.

Did Denby jump the gun deliberately to make it harder for the NYFCC to see movies earlier (and vote earlier) next year? Given that the New Yorker often prints reviews well after every else, you really have to wonder.

As for Denby’s review, which apparently won’t go up online until tomorrow morning, I’d characterize it as positive to mixed, though he begins with a pull quote that Sony’s marketing department and awards spin doctors will find useful: “You can’t take your eyes off Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander…”

He concludes by stopping short of a money notice: “This is a bleak but mesmerizing piece of filmmaking; it offers a glancing, chilled view of a world in which brief moments of loyalty flicker between repeated acts of betrayal.”

Denby has problems with the source novel: “At heart, of course, the material is pulpy and sensational…There are certainly lurid moments, but I wouldn’t say that Fincher exploits the material.”

As soon as I can post my own review, I will.