BECK AT THE MOVIES: “The Girl Who Played with Fire”
Flies By with Intricate Action Storyline
By Jeff Beck
Special to Huntingtonnews.net (with commentary by Tony Rutherford, Entertainment Editor)
Richmond, VA (HNN) - The thrilling film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy" continue with "The Girl Who Played with Fire," the second of the series. For those of you who haven't read or seen the adaptation of the first book, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," it was about a magazine writer, Mikael, facing an upcoming jail sentence who is asked to investigate the disappearance/possible murder of a woman that occurred 40 years earlier. Joining the writer is an expert hacker, Lisbeth, who helps him with researching. The story also tells of how they become good partners on the case.
The second film starts not long after the first case is concluded. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is back writing for Millennium magazine while Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace) has just recently returned to Sweden from being abroad. Mikael and his coworkers welcome two new additions to their staff who are researching a sex-trafficking ring and plan to expose those involved. Meanwhile, Lisbeth returns to the home of her guardian, Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), to threaten him with the video she had made of him raping her, claiming that if he should not meet any of her demands, she will release the video to the press.
One night, Mikael goes to the home of his two new coworkers to pick up some materials for their report, but he discovers that they have been murdered. Not long after that, Bjurman is also found murdered. Adding to the mystery is the fact that the murder weapon found at the first crime scene has Lisbeth's fingerprints on it. She becomes the prime suspect for all three murders and must lay low while investigating who is really responsible. At the same time, Mikael also sets out to prove her innocence with his own investigation.
The first film was an incredible ride. It had a deliberately slow pace and, for a film that clocks in at nearly two and a half hours, it went by surprisingly quick and remained engaging throughout. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" also manages to stay engaging throughout, but not quite as much as the previous film. This is mainly due to the way the mystery is approached in each of the films.
(Tony Rutherford, entertainment editor: Jeff does not mention that the “Girl” has subtitles. However, after setting up the characters, the film has so much action and visual ingredients you cease to be distracted by ‘reading’ dialogue.)
The first entry in the series had a fairly straightforward missing person mystery. An elderly man assumes that his missing daughter was murdered and wants the murderer brought to justice, so Mikael begins with the last known photographs taken of her. From here, the mystery unfolds naturally, leading from A to B to C in an easy to follow manner.
The second film doesn't make it so easy. It sets up the mystery of who really killed these people and why they would want to frame Lisbeth, but it unfolds in a much different manner. It's as if A leads to C then back to B then jumps to D, all while asking the audience to figure out how it all fits together. The ending is easy enough, but the convoluted manner in which it gets there is what ends up hurting it slightly, though not enough to stop it from being enjoyable. I'm not saying a movie that makes you do some thinking is bad, but one that flies by details that are important to the storyline and asks that you remember them when they become more relevant is going to make the movie a little hard to follow for some viewers, so pay close attention.
What made this entry in the series interesting was how it delved into Lisbeth's background more. In the first film, we had been given little bits and pieces, including a flashback of her as a younger girl burning a man alive, but who and why remained a mystery. We finally get the backstory on what happened to her back then that made her have to be under the watch of a guardian in the first place.
Adding onto that, we also get more of Noomi Rapace's excellent portrayal of Lisbeth. She plays the part perfectly, always with a touch of mystery, determination, fearlessness, and strength. All the traits that allow her to do the things required of her throughout these adventures. There has even been some early talk of a possible Oscar nomination for her performance, particularly for the first film.
(Tony Rutherford, Entertainment Editor: While “Oscar” seldom contemplates acting from the action genre, Ms. Rapace’s portrayal of the strong, tough female mixed martial arts fighter (at five foot tall and 90 pounds) requires lots of down and dirty surviving details. Unlike Hollywood played heroines who seldom suffer a hair out of place or dirt on their feet, Rapace’s fight scenes are close up, brutal and realistic. Her escapes from ‘doom’ as well as the ultimate mystery as to the hit person(s) tantalize and entertain.)
One of the strange things that this film does is split up the two main characters for almost the entire movie, each carrying on their own investigation. One of the interesting things about the first film was how when they started, they were working apart, and how when they got together, their chemistry clicked together right away as if they were already familiar with how the other worked. Watching them work separately was not quite as interesting a process to watch, but it was intriguing to see how they both ended up with the same conclusions by following different trails.
If you were fortunate enough to see the first film and enjoyed it, chances are you will also enjoy this entry. There's still one more film to go in the series, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," which will have a limited release in the States starting October 29. Hopefully it will be as thrilling as the other two with a great conclusion to wrap up this fascinating trilogy. We also have the American remakes to look forward to starting next year which are being directed by David Fincher and star Daniel Craig. With talent like that attached, they might accomplish something that rarely happens: a good remake. 3/4 stars.