Entertaining Second Film in a Swedish Trilogy of Thrillers
The Girl Who Played With Fire is the sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the predecessor of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Adapted from novels by Stieg Larsson, these three films constitute the Millenium Trilogy. It is expected that English-language versions will be made of one or more of these movies, and these are projected to star Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. But the write-up here is based on the Swedish-language versions, which were released in 2009 and star Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist.
The most striking thing about the Millenium Trilogy is the peculiar central female character Lisbeth Salander, who is portrayed with great verve in the Swedish films by Noomi Rapace. Rapace was brilliant in the first movie of the trilogy, and in The Girl Who Played With Fire, she maintains the same exceptionally high level of performance.
But the second film is less visually arresting than the first, and it is less satisfying. Rapace shares very little screen time with co-star Nyqvist, and the story is unresolved, functioning as a setup for the third movie. Nevertheless, The Girl Who Played With Fire is still an above-average thriller.
The incident that sets the plot in motion in the second film is the murder of a journalist and an academic who are preparing an exposé of sex trafficking. There's strong evidence Lisbeth committed the crime, and Mikael Blomqvist (Nyqvist) sets out to prove her innocence. The trail leads to the mysterious, evil Zala and his underling Niederman, a giant of a man who is incapable of feeling physical pain.
Special Features
The DVD containing The Girl Who Played With Fire supplies little in the way of extras, though it does provide the English-language theatrical trailer. Also, it allows viewers to watch the feature film in either the original Swedish with English subtitles or in dubbed English. The dubbed North American voices don't sound naturalistic, spoiling the movie's atmosphere.
Release Date: October 26, 2010
Total Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Brutal Violence, Including a Rape, Some Strong Sexual Content, Nudity and Language