The Girl Who Played With Fire [2009]

Sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this adaptation of the second book of Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy starts off where the former movie ended. The plot is straightforward – as Mikael Bloomkvist, the co-editor of the investigative tabloid Millenium, gets interested in an exposé of human trafficking incidents, a series of murders start occurring across Stockholm implicating the emotionally scarred computer whiz Lisbeth Salander. The two start investigating their leads, ending up uncovering a dark chapter from the mysterious Lisbeth’s past. As a standalone film it is reasonably alright – it is fast-paced, has its share of thrills, twists and, ahem, sizzling moments, and the acting of Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace are impressive. But standalone film this is not, and so given that it is a follow-up to a brilliant psychological thriller, the current film feels like a major disappointment. In place of the marvelous pacing, grim atmospherics, terrific plot progression and thoroughly engaging character dynamics, all you have here is a half-baked script, thinly drawn characters and an over-edited run-of-the-mill thriller.









Director: Daniel Alfredson
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: Swedish
Country: Sweden