The Girl Who Played With Fire: movie review
For those who can鈥檛 get enough of Stieg Larsson鈥檚 鈥淢illennium鈥� trilogy in all its book/movie incarnations, 鈥�The Girl Who Played With Fire鈥� will no doubt be required viewing. For those of us not so fanatically inclined, this follow-up to 鈥�The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo鈥� resembles nothing so much as a workmanlike TV crime thriller.
In fact, the film was originally intended solely for television. (The first installment was also shot for television but conceived as a big-screen theatrical release.) Director Daniel Alfredson 鈥� who also shot the third film, 鈥淭he Girl Who Kicked the Hornet鈥檚 Nest,鈥� due out in the fall 鈥� keeps things moving as the torchings, gougings, and throttlings proceed apace. All the familiar players reappear including, of course, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and hacker misfit Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), whose dragon tattoo is prominently displayed, like a bar code.
Lisbeth is accused of murdering two of Mikael鈥檚 researchers who were working on an article on international sex-trafficking implicating high-level Swedes. Mikael is convinced she鈥檚 innocent. An impressive array of bad guys turn up, including a jumbo thug (Micke Spreitz) who literally feels no pain, but only Lisbeth strikes sparks. It鈥檚 said that Larsson had Pippi Longstocking in mind when he created her, and, in a punkish way, that makes sense. She鈥檚 a fairy-tale hellion. Grade: B- (Rated R for brutal violence including a rape, some strong sexual content, nudity, and language.)
