The girl who played with fire
By Megan Carroll
Movies in the middle of a series are like middle children. The first one is amazing and new and gets lots of attention, and the last one, the baby, is often a memorable summation and celebration. The Girl Who Played with Fire is the neglected and not-so-interesting middle child of Stieg Larsson’s thriller trilogy.
The movie has all of the elements that made the first film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, outstanding. Noomi Rapace has reprised her role as Lisbeth Salander, the Goth-girl super hacker who smoothly disappeared with a boat load of cash at the end of the first film. Our favorite leftist magazine reporter Michael Nyqvist returns as Mikael Blomkvist, but missing from the film was the connection between these two characters. In the first film, the story brought this oddly-matched pair together with explosive sexual chemistry and quirky interactions, while The Girl Who Played with Fire keeps them apart the entire film, pulling away from the film’s energy.
The Girl Who Played with Fire seemed to not know what story it wanted to tell. There were a couple of storylines introduced in the first hour of the film, which were interesting if they would have been given the chance to play out, but as soon as you began to wrap your head around one you are suddenly thrown into another plot. What the film is about then has nothing to do with the first hour. Lisbeth is framed for a series of murders and she is on the run. While spending most of her time in hiding, Mikael tries to figure out who framed her and why.
The one interesting part of this film is that we delve more deeply into Lisbeth’s violent past, but this tidbit does nothing to help the film in the long run. It was like watching a TV crime series mixed in with a James Bond film. There is one random incident after another with a seven foot tall Bond-esque villain who can’t feel pain. I felt the director was trying to pull one over on us; like we wouldn’t notice that this film was boring and played too many action movie clichés.
It is bad enough the plot is erratic, but the characters are played out. The look of the film is right out of communist Russia. Niels Arden Oplev directed the first film and captured the dark tone of the trilogy beautifully while new director Daniel Alfredson became the middle child. Stieg Larsson is probably rolling over in his grave at the sight of this male objectification of the female gender. It is not true to the author’s beliefs and passion. Then we have the 129-minute run time which is just painful to sit through; the polar opposite of the first film which had you on the edge of your seat from start to finish!
The film was, at best, disappointing. Let’s hope for a better outcome with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
