The Swedish-made, English sub-titled, "The Girl Who Played With Fire," directed by Daniel Alfredson, is the slick sequel to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Both were based on a trilogy of novels by Stieg Larsson entitled "The Millennium Trilogy." The third and final novel, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," was released in America this week. It should be available on DVD in a few months.
Larsson, a former newspaper journalist died in 2004 at the age of 50 from an apparent heart attack. He left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure, and made no attempt to have them published until shortly before his death. The novels were finally released after he died and "The Millennium Trilogy" became one of the most popular novel series of all time. After he died, Larsson became the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind only Khaled Hosseini. By March 2010, his "Millennium Trilogy" had sold 27 million copies in more than 40 countries.
"The Girl Who Played With Fire" takes place a year after the end of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." Lisbeth Salander, again played with gusto by Noomi Rapace, went on a long trip to places as far away as Australia, and when she returned, she found herself wrongly accused of three murders. Her sidekick from the first movie, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, again played by Michael Nyquist, believes she is innocent, and embarks on a mission to prover just that.
The movie opens with a young journalist couple approaching Blomkvist and his magazine "Millennium" about a well-fleshed out story they had been researching about a Swedish slave-trade sex ring. The magazine hires them, but before they can complete and publish the story, Blomkvist find them both shot to death in their apartment. A gun is left behind at the scene with Lisbeth's fingerprints on it.
Soon after, Lisbeth's slime guardian Nils Bjurman, who had vicious raped Lisbeth in the first movie, turns up dead too. When the police find his body, the see the words tattooed to his stomach, announcing the the world that he is a "sadistic, rapist pig." They also find a video showing him raping Lisbeth, so putting two and two together in Swedish, the come up with Lisbeth as his murderer too. They are only half right, since in the first movie, we see the rape scene, and we also see Lisbeth branding the creep with a hot poker. But kill him? Well no. She had her chances and was content with his branding as her revenge.
The rest of the movie is Blomkvist trying to clear Lisbeth's name, and Lisbeth, doing the same on her own, with no contact with Blomkvist whatsoever. In fact, they don't actually meet until the movie is almost over.
Some people may be offended by a hot lesbian scene between Lisbeth and her half-Asian lover, but it lasts only a few fleeting seconds. It is not a gratuitous scene and it does add to the plot, cementing the relationship between the two. It helps the viewers understand why Lisbeth's lover would put her life in danger (catching a brutal beating to boot, which lands her disfigured in the hospital), to help Blomkvist clear Lisbeth's name.
"The Girl Who Played With Fire" did not garner the critical acclaim of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," mainly because the first movie was such a hard act to follow.
Matthew Toomey of ABC Radio Brisbane opined, "Whilst it's not as memorable as the original, I've always got time for a well-written thriller. There are plenty of characters involved and you'll be cheering (on the inside) for Blomkvist as he fits the pieces of the puzzle together. He's such a likable hero with his mild-mannered demeanor."
Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette didn't feel his movie measured up to the first. He wrote, "Like the first film, there is a lot of enjoyable art (and artiness) applied to what is essentially a pulp fiction. The villains are Bond-film cartoonish, and it was more fun to see Mikael and Lisbeth work together in the first movie than it is to watch them slowly converge in this one."
I was caught somewhere in between. While I thought "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was brilliantly done, I enjoyed the taut suspense in "The Girl Who Played with Fire" with almost the same vigor.
The plots are decidedly different, but the spirit of the two lead characters, Lisbeth and Blomkvist, are captivatingly the same. If you liked the first movie, you'll like the sequel. Simple as that. I can't wait to see the third Millennium installment on DVD, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," in a few short months.
Out of a possible five stars (which I gave "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"). I give "The Girl Who Played With Fire" a solid 4 ½ stars. The half-a-star less is a reflexion, not on the sequel, but rather because "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was such an exceptional movie.
My new novel Find Big Fat Fanny Fast is available on Amazon Kindle at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00477438M
