The Girl Who Played with Fire (2010) Review

"You realize that my life will be destroyed if you publish this?"

-Gunnar Björk

"Yes."

-Mikael Blomkvist

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), back working for Millennium Magazine, hires Dag Svensson (Hans Christian Thulin), who is working on an exposé in prostitution and sex trafficking.  Dag is planning on calling out powerful men in the police and the government who are a part of the ring.  However, before the article can be published, Dag and his girlfriend are both shot and killed.  Luckily, fingerprints are found on the gun, unfortunately they belong to Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), who is more involved in what is going on than anyone could anticipate.  Mikael starts hunting for Lisbeth hoping to find her before the police can, but far more sinister forces are also looking for her and they are willing to kill anyone who gets in their way.

What Works:

Like the first movie, the lead characters are fantastic.  Noomi Rapace is amazing as Lisbeth Salander, who is becoming one of my all time favorite film characters.  Once again, Lisbeth proves how intelligent, capable, and badass she is.  She spends most of the movie on the run from the police and no one gets close to catching her.  Her takedown of some bikers is fun to watch and very satisfying.

Michael Nyqvist is also great and we see how much he cares about Lisbeth.  He gets some solid emotional acting in when he discovers Dag's death and again when he sees a video of Lisbeth getting raped.  Nyqvist is a great actor and does an awesome job of grounding this film. 

I really appreciate how brutal this film is.  It doesn't hold back on the sex and violence, which is refreshing in its own way.  It's a rough film to watch at points, not to the same extent as the original, but still brutal in it's own way.

Finally, the 3rd act is awesome.  Lisbeth manages to dig her way out of a grave and on the brink of death, she takes down one of the bad guys (with an axe!) and manages to hold off the other long enough for help to arrive.  It's just more evidence that Lisbeth is one of the most badass characters ever to grace cinema.

What Sucks:

First off, the story simply isn't as interesting as Dragon Tattoo.  I thought it would be about Mikael and Lisbeth taking down a trafficking ring, but that's not really what it is.  It's about Lisbeth facing her past, which simply isn't as interesting as it sounds, and it's not as engaging as the hunt for the serial killer in the previous film.

I don't love that the main bad guys of the film turn out to be Lisbeth's father and half-brother.  It just seems really convenient and unbelievable.  The actors both do fine with what they are give, but if this was just a cruel trafficking ring I think it would be more believable and engaging.  I didn't need the deep dive into Lisbeth's past.  I was fine with what we had and the mystery just added to her character.

Finally, Mikael and Lisbeth are separated for almost the entire movie.  Their chemistry is what made the first film so great, but in the sequel they have no screen time together until the last three minutes of the film and Lisbeth is basically unconscious for all of it.  It was really disappointing for them to be on their own the whole time as that was my favorite aspect of the first film.

Verdict:

The Girl Who Played with Fire is an entertaining movie with great lead characters, an awesome 3rd act, and sheer brutality throughout, but the story isn't as interesting as it could be, the backstory for Lisbeth is unnecessary, and the separation of the main characters for the majority of the film hurts the narrative.  It's not as good as the first film, but it's still worth watching.

 7/10: Good