DVD Review: Hit Trilogy Continues With ‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’

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CHICAGO – One of the biggest pop culture stories of 2010 has to be the various incarnations of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. As millions read the books on their way back and forth to work and David Fincher prepares to turn them into star-making vehicles for Rooney Mara, the foreign-language film versions of the books have been released in theaters and the middle story, “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD.

HollywoodChicago.com DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0
DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

With “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” just released in theaters, the Swedish trilogy is complete. Catch up with the first two movies, both now available on the home market, to see why they’ve become so big. It’s obvious. They have just the right blend of labyrinthine conspiracy and straight-up action to deliver for international audiences. They can play to both the intellectual crowd interested in a journalist and an outcast taking on the man and fans of more traditional thrillers.

The Girl Who Played With Fire was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 26th, 2010
The Girl Who Played With Fire was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 26th, 2010
Photo credit: Music Box Films

The most shocking thing about “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is that Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) spend most of the movie apart. In fact, they have hardly any screen time together. They are still effective co-leads, but the story is about how their lives come back together again during an investigation and it keeps them apart for a surprising amount of time.

Mikael is back working at Millennium Magazine and is supporting a young writer as he tries to expose a deadly and powerful ring of rich men who traffic in human sex slaves. It’s not long before the writer, the writer’s girlfriend, and even Lisbeth’s abusive rapist from the first film, Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), have all been murdered and the fingers point back at Lisbeth as the killer. Mikael knows she’s been framed and the two work the case from different ends to figure out what the hell is going on.

Many people have criticized “The Girl Who Played With Fire” for being disappointingly plot-thin when compared to the deep conspiracy of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” although that is probably a flaw of the source material more than anything else. It is true that Rapace, who has been rumored as a potential Oscar nominee, was given a more complex role in the first movie, but the sequel feels more tightly-produced and confident than the first film overall.

Director Daniel Alfredson (who replaced Niels Arden Oplev from the first film) doesn’t have to deal with the back story of the first film and has made a tighter thriller, running much shorter and feeling more crisply-paced than the often-draggy “Tattoo.” It flies by without many scenes that aren’t designed to drive the plot forward.


It’s only when it’s over does one look back and realize that the plot is surprisingly thin and the film doesn’t feature as many straight-up action scenes as it probably will when it’s remade for Americans, but I appreciated the economy of “Fire.” It doesn’t hurt that Rapace and Nyqvist feel more comfortable with these characters. Jump on the bandwagon. It’s a “Girl” world.

Sadly, the DVD release of “The Girl Who Played With Fire” features nothing in the way of special features. When the trilogy is finally set for its American remake, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more lavish releases of the Swedish films hitting the home market but these are basically rental-driven releases. With so many fans and impressive success on the American arthouse scene ($8 million domestically, which is HUGE for a foreign film, and an amazing $66 million international total), a commentary or featurette would have been nice. Maybe next time.

‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’ stars Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace. It was written by Jonas Frykberg from the book by Stieg Larsson and directed by Daniel Alfredson. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26th, 2010.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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