THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
Directed by Daniel Alfredson
Produced by Soren Staermose
Written by Jonas Frykberg, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson
Released by Music Box Films
Swedish with English subtitles
Sweden/Denmark. 129 min. Rated R
With Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Per Oscarsson, Lena Endre, Peter Andersson, Yasmine Garbi, Johan Kylén, Tanja Lorentzon & Paolo Roberto  
 

The Girl Who Played With Fire faithfully continues the film adaptations of the late Stieg Larsson’s world-wide bestselling “Millennium Trilogy” thrillers. Within an absorbing plot, this second installment answers many questions about the background of that mysterious, skinny girl with the dragon tattoo down her back, Lisbeth Salander (again wholly embodied by the intriguing Noomi Rapace).

Opening where the first film left her, the computer whiz/martial artist/avenging angel is on a quiet vacation by the ocean, asleep without her dark make-up and piercings, and even sporting a softer haircut. Brief flashbacks of her nightmares may somewhat help newcomers get up-to-date about the violent sexual abuse she suffered from her court-appointed legal guardian Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), although they may wonder how and where Salander obtain so much money to travel around the world. She now needs to go back to Stockholm to tie up a few personal loose ends.

Salander allows herself more sentiment this time around, here with her older tolerant guardian Holger Palmgren (Per Oscarsson), who’s recovering from a stroke, and in renewing her affair with the alluring Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi). While the lesbian sex scenes may contribute to the books’ sales, the two are tender and erotic together in the film, making the later ramifications from their relationship that much more jolting.

Salander’s horrible backstory gets tangled up in an investigation of a human trafficking network pursued by the crusading editor Mikael Blomkvist (again played by Michael Nyqvist), during which two of his young reporters are murdered. Blomkvist and the eerily indestructible Salander separately come to realize the same assassins are trying to kill her, too. The bone-crunching one-on-one battles on screen come down to bloodthirsty vendettas.

Scripter Jonas Frykberg briskly trims the book’s several-pronged plot down to the swift essentials of a complicated crime mystery. While one of the policemen, Jan Bublanski (Johan Kylén), retains some distinctive individuality as an observant Jew, Larsson’s stingers against chauvinist and homophobic cops are among the politically oriented details that were jettisoned.

The big change from the first film, unfortunately, is the director, Daniel Alfredson, who has also reteamed with Frykberg for the final film in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, to be released in the fall. This straightforward installment is just not as visually exciting as the first. Salander and Blomkvist are seen as a tag team hunting down clues in a brisk, workmanlike fashion, even during hair-raising confrontations with the bad guys. However, the exaggerated Bond-esque villains are brought to vivid life—hirsute motorcycle gang bangers, an impervious blonde giant, and a twisted old man—in dark and isolated buildings and deserted streets that manage to be tense without any flourishes. One of the most colorful characters was not only preserved but the real person who inspired the role plays him—former professional boxer Paolo Roberto (turned TV host, political candidate, and actor) as the feisty former professional boxer Paolo Roberto, one of Salander’s few allies.

The biggest revelations will have less impact on first-timers. However, one of the villains, a relic of the Cold War who is still a threat in the West, seems more relevant after recent espionage arrests in the U.S., and he is more nastily convincing than the schemers uncovered in Roman Polanski’s The Ghostwriter.

As much as its underlying theme is virtuous, how the abuse of women thrives with the complicity of institutional corruption, there have been plenty of TV series, like Christian Duguay’s Human Trafficking, which have more effectively focused on the victims and the perpetrators. While the moral high ground is just an excuse for the violence here, The Girl is worth seeing in the Swedish original before whomever American director David Fincher (Se7en) casts in the Hollywood remake. Nora Lee Mandel
July 9, 2010