Dir. Daniel Alfredson, Sweden/Denmark/Germany, 129 mins, Swedish with subtitles
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist
Review by James Bartlett
The second film based on the gargantuan-selling book trilogy by the late Stieg Larsson (you've seen the first one, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo everywhere), The Girl Who Played With Fire again sees Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) in deep, deep trouble.
Millennium magazine publisher Mikael (Nyqvist) has a major sex trafficking scandal story ready to go, but then both the journalist and his wife, who was also researching the story, are murdered, and Lisbeth's fingerprints are on the gun. Next Lisbeth's social services guardian is found dead too and she's on the hook for a triple killing.
Mikael hasn't seen Salander in over a year but he's sure that she's innocent. Proving it will be a different matter, as computer hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth has gone to ground with the police hot on her tail. She's also doing her own research into what really happened, and the horrible truth behind the man known as Zala
Many people won't go to see this just because it's got subtitles but that would be a mistake. Whether you have read any of the excellent but weighty books or not, this film and the previous one, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo have been two of the best this year.
They've both been excellently adapted from the novels (in this case by Jonas Frykberg), and are a lesson in what to leave in and to leave out. Never slow or dull (despite the fact that there's not much action), this is again a compelling and engrossing film and even though I had read the book, I still gasped at the big revelation.
These Swedish-language film versions have been a huge hit in Europe, and I cannot wait until the final one The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest comes out in October. Inevitably, they're already working on a Hollywood version, and my expectation gets ever lower for it.
Right now it's Daniel Craig as Mikael and Carey Mulligan as Lisbeth, but there's a long trail of other actresses rumored to have been considered for her role. I urge you though to see this version and see the best.
|
