The Girl Who Played With Fire, based on the flawed Stieg Larsson novel with the same title, features another electrifying performance by Noomi Rapace as the elfin computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. If you haven’t read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo or seen the movie of the same name, you’ll be very confused about what’s happening in The Girl Who Played With Fire. The director and screenwriter pretty much assume you’ve read the books as they follow Larsson’s plot relentlessly. This movie lacks the intensity of the previous movie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, simply because the two main characters, Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist, are separated for most of the film. However, once the murderous climax unfolds, you’ll be on the edge of your seat. All three MILLENNIUM movies were filmed together. The last installment, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, will open around Christmas. I can’t wait. GRADE: B+
I also thought it concentrated too heavily on her story and torture. The sex trafficking got short shrift. My son who’s read them all says each books is half as good as the one before it. Maybe the movies will be too.
Your son is right, Patti. The conspiracy plots are hard to sustain over three books (and movies). I really liked THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO movie.
I thought the book concentrated too heavily on that too. The first book was better.
Still, I want to see the movies.
For most of THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE and THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST the two main characters are kept apart, Jeff. Big flaw, in my opinion. And, since the movies are following the books’ plots so closely, the movies exaggerate the flaws of the novels.
Conspiracy? Sex trafficking? Torture? Somehow I don’t think this (or the others, or the books) is my kind of thing at all. I’ll stick with Mike Shayne, Shell Scott, Perry Mason, Hercile Poirot and Maigret.
THE GIRL WHO… books by Stieg Larrson are selling like hotcakes, Rick. I enjoyed reading them despite their flaws.
Stephanie Meyers proves that selling like hotcakes doesn’t mean a thing is any good…
Quality isn’t the issue, Rick (although THE GIRL WHO… books are way better than Stephanie Meyers’ vampire books). Market forces are at work with Stieg Larrson’s book selling zillions of copies here and all over the world.
I’m still digesting everything said at last week’s writers conference, but I know the name Stieg Larsson was flying from many a tongue. Guess I’ll have to find out what all the fuss is about.
As I noted in response to Patti’s CRIMESPREE CINEMA review, there are more blatant flaws in this one than have been cited here so far (and some nice touches), but I like this second film as well as the first, not least because the event recounted here are less improbable than those, on balance, in the first, and becuase the obsession Larsson had with breast implants was utterly dropped from the filmscript. This film is Definitely the middle of a trilogy, though, as its abrupt end suggests.
It’s also still worth noting that this is the only film and book that keeps Larrson’s orignal title for the Anglophone market (his titles were retained in EVERY other language with no slump in sales), not referring to the adult Salander as a girl but to the child Salander was when she helped set thiese events in motion.
I waited until THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST was published before I started reading THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, Todd. They’re basically one long book split in two volumes.
Events, that is.
I have a question for those who have seen this movie.
I saw “The Girl Who Played With Fire” it with my family and enjoyed it very much. But then this question came up, and we couldn’t remember the answer.
So one of the pivotal scenes in the movie is when they show a flashback of Salander seeing a license plate along with the huge man. We know that this is how she was able to track down the address to the house, and where she saw the huge man. But I don’t recall the original time the flashback was shown. When in the movie did that happen?
Does anyone else remember?
Thanks!
The original scene happened early in the movie when Salander was waiting secretly outside the house of the corrupt lawyer, Nils Bjurman, when Ronald Niedermann (the huge guy who can’t feel anything) drives up and lets Bjurman out of his car, Emiko.
I’ll keep that in mind, Drongo. Yes, I imagine a bit of bitterness might be Barth’s reaction to his slow slide from being part of the Literary Canon to being nearly forgotten today. At one time, Barth was touted as one of the best writers in the United States. His books were required reading. But, times changed, and Barth slipped from the top of the heap to nearly being irrelevant now. Sad.