A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

The Evaluation System Reviews by Title Reviews by Date

Reviews from Video Reviews of the Classics Personal Background

Title: The Girl (2) Who Played With Fire

Date Viewed: 7/11/10

Details:

Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander)

Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomkvist)

Director: Daniel Alfredson

Score: 3/4

The Review: This time, Noomi Rapace gets top billing -- deservedly. This is very much Lisbeth's film -- for good and for bad -- Mikael is clearly in a subordinate (though critical) role.

In this, the second entry in theStieg Larsson Millennium trilogy,Lisbeth discovers (much) more of her past and Mikael provides investigational links between Cold War politics and the local police. But the discoveries are beyond agonizing -- the phrase "bodily harm" comes to mind. Were this not so well crafted, I would be bemoaning the analogy to Job -- the film is sufficiently compelling that this didn't bother me until well after leaving the theatre.

Both main characters are carried over from the first movie, but the secondary characters seem to be either new or mutated -- new actors in possibly-familiar roles. This appears to be one consequence of this (and the forthcoming third title) being produced for Swedish television instead of the silver screen. It means that production qualities are a bit reduced fromDragon Tattoo,but that doesn't detract from the plot, the tension or the entertainment.

(11-Jul-10)

Back to the chronological list of reviews