SummaryAs computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigate a sex-trafficking ring, Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.
SummaryAs computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigate a sex-trafficking ring, Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.
The actress gets immeasurable help from the writing: Lisbeth's anger is matched by her intelligence and her physical prowess, which enables her to administer as well as absorb pain in megadoses. But none of it would register without Ms. Rapace's singular combination of eerie beauty and feral intensity. She's a movie star unlike any other.
I found The Girl Who Played With Fire more gripping than "Dragon Tattoo," because this one doesn't just play with thriller conventions -- it puts them to work.
This trilogy is a really good one. I love the girl with the dragon tattoo. I think both are just great and I can't Decide which movie is better. I don't Like reading subs a=because reading subs are just like reading a book but I didn't mind reading it for this movie. I think this is one of the year best film. I can't wait until the usa version is made. I hope they make it just like this one or better.
Ever since I read the infamous "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" I have been hooked on this amazing trilogy. Overall I give the film a positive review (aside from the tacky dubbed English version) there's something noteworthy to be said about the acting and the action-packed special effects. Those unfamiliar with the series or the first film may have trouble following along at first, but I'm confident that this will appeal to almost anyone that doesn't mind subtitles.
Relentless suspense allows The Girl Who Played With Fire to hold you in a viselike grip. But it's the performances of Nyqvist and especially Rapace that keep you coming back for more.
Director Daniel Alfredson grounds the mystery in a real sense of place: his Stockholm looks and feels like a major city where corruption lurks behind attractive facades. The reporter character is better developed than in the first movie, but most of the supporting characters from the book have been shrunk to little more than walk-ons.
Almost without exception, the men are either sickening deviants or wise mentors while the ladies tend to be kickboxing hipsters or victims of sexual abuse (many are both).
Faithful to the book, this film offers tense, gritty thrills. It also suffers, as does the novel, from the fact that Lisbeth and Mikael don't have the direct interaction they had in "Dragon Tattoo." Very much feels like part 2 of a trilogy, but leaves me enthused for film no. 3. I love the fact that these characters have physical flaws . . . can you imagine Jennifer Aniston appearing on film with even one enlarged pore?
I came to know this Swedish film trilogy through its famous American "twin brother", and I believe I was not the only one. Despite international credits, it is unusual for Swedish cinema to be widely publicized. Neither its literature! So I also didn't read the book to judge how the adaptation did it justice, but I do believe those who say it was a relatively faithful adaptation. This film was directed by Daniel Alfredson, who succeeds Neil Arden Oplev.
This film is a sequel and follows the logical sequence of events after the first film, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”: after a time abroad, Lisbeth Salander, now owner of a small fortune, returns to Sweden at the same time that Millennium magazine, directed by Erika Berger and Mikael Blomkvist, is preparing to expose a network of pimping and women trafficking. But the murder of two magazine employees and also the person in charge of Lisbeth's legal custody causes authorities to start looking for her. Determined to avenge his dead colleagues and convinced that someone is using her as a scapegoat, Mikael is going to investigate and help his friend.
The film has a good plot and a story full of mystery, that knows how to capture our curiosity, but we need to be attentive because it gives several twists and turns. There are also plenty of action, which makes everything more fun to watch. What cost me the most was the disinterested way in which Alfredson directed it. He gives the film an overly televised feel and is unable to create the atmosphere of mystery and tension that made the first film work so perfectly. The characters also no longer had the same ability to reach the public.
The cast is overwhelmingly the same as we saw in the previous film but, as I said, it doesn't achieve the same impact, which does not mean that it did a bad job. Noomi Rapace sees her status as a protagonist consolidated with this film, which is entirely around her; Michael Nyqvist, now in a more reserved position, also gave us a good job, even becoming, for me, the actor who is closest to the work developed in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. Lena Endre had more space to show what is worth and it also gives us a satisfactory job. The film also features good collaborations from Peter Andersson, Yasmine Garbi, Ralph Carlsson, Micke Spreitz, Per Oscarsson and Georgi Staykov.
Technically, the film is too televised in its appearance and in the way it seems to have been thought... so that I don't even know if it will have circulated in theaters. Anyway, it's something that didn't cause me any problems, although it's a shame that the production didn't think about creating a final product with a more cinematic shape. Cinematography and editing are regular, but do not excel in brilliance. The film is long and in some versions (dedicated to TV) it is divided into two halves. The effects are good and fulfill their role, the sets and costumes, as well as the careful choice of landscapes and filming locations, increase the visual beauty of the whole set. The soundtrack does its job well.
The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009): Interesting origin story, but the crime solving half of the story is fairly dull. The film also uses a lot of repetition from first movie, a sign of weak story telling.
Il est dommage de constater que cette suite conserve le grand dÃfaut du prÃcÃdent, à savoir une mise en scène trop scolaire et quelque peu plate. Et même, le rÃsultat final donne l'impression que ce MillÃnium 2 est en rÃalità un simple tÃlÃfilm, n'ayant pas eu de prise de risque question mise en scène, avec une ambiance qui a rÃgressà par rapport au premier. NÃanmoins, ce (tÃlÃ)film possède encore bien des atouts comme son casting (Noomi Rapace et Michael Nyqvist en tête), la bande son en adÃquation avec l'univers du film et il y a suffisamment de suspense pour que MillÃnium 2 tienne en haleine jusqu'au bout. Un bon polar, en somme!
Production Company
Yellow Bird,
ZDF Enterprises,
Sveriges Television (SVT),
Nordisk Film,
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF),
Filmpool Stockholm Mälardalen,
Film i Väst,
Spiltan Underhållning,
Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI)