The Girl Who Played With Fire (2010)

The follow-up to the fantastic 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo', suffers from the middle part of the trilogy syndrome. The film starts straight after the first film whilst trying to set-up the story for the third, without really having a story of its own to tell. Dragon Tattoo is simply one of the best thrillers in recent years. It was confidently cinematic, and took its time telling the complex plot. The trilogy was originally planned as a longer TV serial and it really shows in this film as key parts feel rushed and is no where near as cinematic as Tattoo.

Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) returns to Sweden, becomes a suspect in three murders and goes on the run. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is sure Lisbeth is innocent, but realises she is being pursued by dangerous criminals who have a connection to her troubled past.

Delving deeper into the turbulent background of heroine Lisbeth Salander, the story bears the same potent combination of detective mystery, emotional yearning and physical brutality that propelled 'Dragon Tattoo' to success around the World. Unfortunately the sequel doesn't quite hit the same heights. The first film was more a mystery, where as this film is more an action film with a storyline thrown in. Lisbeth is now at the heart of the story, with a present-day plot about sex trafficking and political corruption turning out to be a way into Lisbeth's mysterious past. She gets a sort of Empire Strikes Back stand-off with her Father but she also has to face her step brother Ronald Niederman (Micke Spreitz) who has a condition where he doesn't feel pain!! Originally the part of Ronald was offered to Dolph Lungdren but he turned it down. If he decided to take the part it would have been his first role in his native Sweden. Lisbeth also gets a helping hand from a famous boxer (Paolo Roberto) who used to spar with her when she was younger. Boxer Paolo Roberto is featured as a character in the original novel, and now plays himself in the movie. As far as I know this is only one of the few times in film and literature that this has happened.


The catalyst for the plot is a story Millennium is planning on sex trafficking. When the writers of the story are murdered, Lisbeth is implicated when her fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. As the readers of the novel will know, it's Lisbeth's Father-a man the 12 year-old Lisbeth torched after he beat her mother-who holds the key to her destiny.

No doubt this film is still powerful and entertaining, but the story is hurried. The performances are still at a high standard but the third film needs to improve on this if it's to become a great foreign trilogy. If the American remake of 'Dragon Tattoo' is successful, it'll be interesting to see their take on the sequel.