The Girl Who Played With Fire

Director: Daniel Alfredson.
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Yasmine Garbi, Peter Andersson, and Paolo Roberto
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 129 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2011

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Rating notes: Strong violence, sexual violence and sex scenes

Containing brief, disturbing flashbacks to “Dragon Tattoo,” the movie inevitably invites comparison with it. Security forces in Sweden are shown to be as corrupt as ever, and the familiar themes of corruption, fascism and hatred of women emerge, as before. The film unfolds its thriller plot much more than it focuses on the idiosyncrasies of Salander’s bizarreness. Here, she is a woman on the run, rather than someone who dominates the movie with the force of a lethal personality. We actually see a better side to Salander, which fills her character out, but gone are the brooding threat of the icy Swedish winter countryside and the pervading sense of evil that characterised nearly all of “DragonTattoo.” This film presents a complex tale of political intrigue, which is held together too tightly for anyone, who hasn’t read Larsson’s book, and it is unquestionably a pre-sequel to something that is intended to follow.

The film is at the edge of the restricted mature category (MA15+), and has a very explicit Lesbian sex scene (between Salander and Miriam Wu, played by Yasmine Garbi) that may catch the unwary off-guard. The violence is graphic, but less explicit than before, and the acting of the key characters (Salander and Blomquist) by Rapace and Nyqvist continues to be outstanding. Here, they are supported ably by Peter Andersson, who returns to the screen to play the role of Nils Bjurman, Salander’s evil guardian, and Paolo Roberto, who plays himself as the Swedish boxer who fights against the odds to protect Salander. Tension is maintained throughout by the surprise twists and turns in the plot, but the attempts at integration work better through Larsson’s eye for detail in his written word, than by Alfredson’s direction of this movie.

The movie will be very popular with all those, who were entertained by “Dragon Tattoo,” and most will await eagerly the impending climax of what happens to Lisbeth Salander in the third film of the series, which is due to be released within the next six months. It will help, though, to have read the intricacies of the twisting plot, before one buys a ticket to this movie.

This film is quality crime-cinema, but is not up to the standard of the first movie, which was directed by a different director, Niels Opleve, who will not be directing the final film in the series. This is a movie that is more matter-of-fact, less poetic in its camera-work, and less intense and unsettling than “Dragon Tattoo.” Nevertheless, the film is a very good crime thriller, that is produced stylishly, and commands attention. It is smart, but it doesn’t have you sitting on the edge of your seat, while its plot unfolds. “Dragon” did that, and maybe the final film in the series (“The Girl who kicked the Hornets’ Nest”) will do that again.