The Girl Who Played With Fire

Reviewed by Marc Glassman

The Girl Who Played With Fire
Daniel Alfredson, director
Nikolaj Arcel & Rasmus Heisterberg, script based on the novel by Stieg Larsson (2nd part of the Millenium Trilogy)
Starring: Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander), Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomkvist), Lena Endre (Erika Berger), Peter Andersson (Nils Erik Bjurman), Per Oscarsson (Holger Palmgren), Yasmine Garbi (Mimmi Wu), Georgi Staykov (Zala), Paolo Roberto (himself), Ralph Carlsson (Gunnar Bjork)

Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy is a cultural phenomenon: hard-hitting novels from Sweden that mercilessly expose corruption and sexism in Western society in such an entertaining manner that audiences around the world have come to embrace them. Larsson’s great creation, and the reason behind the global appeal of the books, is the young punk heroine Lisbeth Salander. Intense, private, bisexual, with short black hair, piercings on her lips, ears and nose set off by an immense dragon tattoo on her back, Lisbeth is a hellion with a thirst for justice—and revenge.

Casting Lisbeth for the film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first tale in the trilogy, must have been difficult—fail, and so would the movie. Luckily, the right choice was made: it feels as if Noomi Rapace was born to play Lisbeth. She brings a true vulnerability to the role while still maintaining Lisbeth’s tough exterior. A character with many remarkable qualities, Lisbeth is clearly a damaged person who is able to function brilliantly as a detective but not so well as a human being. Possessed with a photographic memory, an extraordinary knowledge of mathematics and an incisive ability as a computer hacker, she can certainly “crack a case.” It’s far more problematic for Lisbeth to figure out how to be part of the world around her.

In the new North American release of the second part of the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Lisbeth is forced into investigating the murders of two journalists and a lawyer when her fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. Helping her once again is Mikael Blomkvist, the forty-something journalist (and now editor of the titular magazine Millenium), whose methodical methods barely mask a search for justice that is as fierce as Lisbeth’s. This time, though, the two work separately with Blomkvist dealing with Stockholm’s cops and media while Lisbeth tries to solve the case on her own.

The Girl Who Played With Fire clips along at a good pace as Lisbeth discovers way too much about her toxic family background. While she finds out about her past, which effectively solves the murders, Blomkvist is several steps behind, slowly finding out about the monstrously violent and complex events that helped to form Lisbeth. In fact, Blomkvist and Lisbeth only meet again, for the first time in years, at the end of the film. The film—and the book—suffers from this separation; after all, part of the fun of Dragon Tattoo is seeing those two slowly sort out how to work together; in comparison, this film feels emotionally colder.

Where the trilogy’s new director Daniel Alfredson shines is in his ability to move the plot’s rather Byzantine structure forward. You could be forgiven for not following exactly why one of the characters is killed—until near the ending when an explanation is offered. Other baffling scenes are presented in a stylish, tense manner that rivets viewers; clearly this director doesn’t worry about the finer points of the film’s structure unless he has to do so. Alfredson is also quite good in depicting the “noir” elements of Stockholm: the empty streets, ancient factory buildings and mismatched duos arguing endlessly with each other.

The second part of any trilogy is often the weakest of the three. If Part One doesn’t work, there will be no trilogy. Part Three gets to have set pieces and an emotionally and intellectually successful conclusion. Part Two merely has to sustain interest in the trilogy as a whole. The Girl Who Played with Fire succeeds admirably in that task. Go to see it if you enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And if you haven’t seen Tattoo, go to see it first. This is one sequel that is bound to attract audiences anyway.