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The Girl Who Played With Fire Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael NyQuist, Lena Endre, Peter Andersson, Micke Spreitz, Yasmin Garbi, Paolo Roberto, Per Oscarsson and Georgi Staykov Director: Daniel Alfredson Scriptwriter: Jonas Frykberg from the novel by Steig Larsson Music Box Films Subtitled Rating: R for violence, rape scene, sexual content, nudity and language Running Length: 128 minutes For fans of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, you won’t have to wait because the second installment of the trilogy is on the big screen. (The third and final book of this series by the late Steig Larsson was out May 2010 titled The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.) The stars of the first film are back, with new ones, especially a villain, and the continuance of the story line goes through til the end where you just can’t wait for the next film. And I'm sure there will be a next one. What makes these novels/films so interesting is that there is sparse dialogue, the camera lingers on faces and body language, music and photography of the Swedish countryside are part of the element of mystery and the cunning one is a petite woman computer hacker. Noomi Rapace, who plays a smart and vicious Liz Salander, is at the center of the plot and hot on her trail is friend and journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (aptly played by Michael Nyquist.) Yasmin Garbi returns as Liz’s friend, Miranda, as does Georgi Staykov as the Russian, Zalachenko. New to the scene are Liz’s mentor, Nils (Peter Andersson) and a blonde-haired villain built like a truck named Niederman (Micke Spreitz.) The story begins with two murders and it looks as though Liz, who was in hiding, is back in Sweden and committing mayhem. Someone is trying to frame her, but who and why? Plus, just about everyone in Sweden is trying to find her, from the police to old friend Blomkvist to Liz’s enemies. Throughout the story, there are flashbacks to Liz’s youth, which was violent and harrowing. She got horrid revenge on her father (Georgi Staykov) for abusing her mother. Liz’s now uses her hacker skills to try to gain information and in the meantime, Blomkvist (Michael Nyquist) is trying to help her via the Internet. Liz doesn’t ask for help, but eventually even a rock needs care. The how’s and why’s of any violent situation here are eventually unraveled with people taking massive beatings and some from Liz. There are car chases and the police are never let in on what’s going on. In this world, Millennium magazine (where Blomkvist works) keeps on publishing and let the chips fall where they may. Love is where you find it at the moment and family means nothing at all. Blomkvist describes Liz in saying, “She despises men who hate women.” The book is condensed for the film, so if you haven’t read it, it flows and you won’t realize the missing parts. For example, for those who have read the book, how Liz finds and furnishes her apartment, including food, are interesting details, but not dealt with in the movie. Niels Arden Oplev directed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with a quiet intensity and that is carried through here by director Daniel Alfredson. Letting the actor’s faces “speak” for them is worth pages of dialogue (reference: the film The Secret In Their Eyes.) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is being cast for an American film due to be released in the fall of 2011. First comes the question, “Why?” And then one fervently hopes that the film doesn’t fall on its face. Time will tell. In the meantime, The Girl Who Played With Fire has a savvy heroine with a family from Hades. This is Liz Salander’s world. Copyright 2010 Marie Asner
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