Review:
As a fan of the first film (The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo), this movie was everything I hoped it would be, matching the intensity and intelligence of the first installment. This is a slick, taught thriller where once again we can enjoy the perfect casting. Noomi Rapace’s performance as Lisbeth continues to be riveting and complicated, the perfect blend of dark and righteous, of likable but distant.
If, like me, you’re one of the 5 people who has yet to read Stieg Larsson’s books, this movie delves deeper into Lisbeth’s past, explaining why she is how she is. Once again the R rating is well earned, though I would call it a milder R than that of the first film. My one regret was that for most of the film Lisbeth and Blomkvist are not onscreen together, but it didn’t detract from the mystery or stakes at all, and the payoff at the end was, to my taste, exactly right. The ending gives enough conclusion to be satisfying, but leaves plenty to be answered in the next film – and never fear, it’s already on it’s way.
It was funny – in the beginning I almost thought the movie was a little slow, and then I realized how much we’ve been trained away from the thriller paradigm. We as moviegoers rarely are given the chance to watch the chess-board be set, to watch the pieces be set in motion, to let the suspense build.
As I walked out of this film, I couldn’t help but realize how starved I had been for just this – a smart film where I readily believed anything could happen to anyone, a story that was dark in a completely unselfconscious way. U.S. fare has become so tame, glossy and utterly predictable, you hardly ever catch your breath in honest suspense. Aside from this franchise, the last thing I can remember enjoying this much was the BBC miniseries State of Play (which is fantastic). I can only hope the U.S. will one day set aside it’s sanitized generalizations and rediscover the ability to produce authentic, intelligent adult thrillers such as this.
My one caveat – I do believe you need to see the first film to appreciate the full measure of this one, as it leans heavily on plot and character development from the first installment. But that is easily done – The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo is now out on DVD.
The Girl who Played with Fire is playing in limited release now.
Watch the trailer:
