The book adaptation in the Hollywood industry this year has been cluttered with the suffocating pretentiousness of romantic bores. Filled with angst-filled whiny male teenagers and idiotic hollow women, the viewing public has been subjugated by the beautiful side of depression. Film is an escape medium, but why should anyone want to escape to a Northwestern town to meet up with a pack of ultimately psychotic and/or brain-fried pretty people with problems?
The Millennium Trilogy, widely known here in the States as "The Girl" series, has been one of the better outlets for reading entertainment and later film adaptions. It goes beyond the simple "woe is life" that popular literature has given us during these economic and social troubling times and actually does something to combat it. The characters of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist pursue, poke, and then persecute the irredeemables to achieve a definition of peace to the world. Moral discussions aside, especially since the works deal with it often, the series has been a treat to behold and read. This is further helped with the Swedish film adaptations that have been released this year.
The first film, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, was an excellent mystery thriller helped by great direction and the ecstatic acting skills of Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth. Sadly, the next installment doesn't reach the same high standards. THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE does continue to be a fantastic showcase Ms. Rapace, and also Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist, but the sheer misdirection and plot structure are a detriment to the further blossoming franchise.
After the events of the first film, Lisbeth and Blomkvist went their separate ways and into their new lives. Blomkvist's reputation is restored and he's still keeping his magazine, Millennium, afloat with news on the elite. A young journalist comes aboard after submitting a work-in-progress expose on prostitution and human trafficking in Sweden and its connections to a hidden mob. Meanwhile, Lisbeth, who is living free on her own terms, has an odd flashback dream about the horrors bestowed upon by her legal guardian in the first film. She returns back to Sweden, threatens him again, and primarily incriminates herself after he has been killed. When the journalist and his girlfriend are also murdered, Blomkvist decides to repay the favor to Lisbeth for clearing his name and desperately tries to find the perpetrators responsible.
Despite an interesting reversal of the first film's proceedings with Blomkvist now helping Lisbeth and the further exploration of Lisbeth's past, the film is just too bogged down with bad plot contrivances and characters that don't matter as much as they should. Several police figures are brought in but you never feel any real threat from them. They also are seen as incompetent hanger-ons to Blomkvist as they simple wait for the next clue discovery. Though Blomvist is still our surrogate to information, Lisbeth is always a mile ahead waiting for the endgame. She is the only one truly able to have control in the proceedings and figure out the puzzle pieces. Unfortunately, the puzzle is simply a lame duck with only a medium sense of surprise.
Meanwhile, Daniel Alfredson has taken over the duties as director and loses a true mysterious quality to the film. Scenes are often bathed and enraptured with the color of orange. It may be a blatant call to the title and the bitter anger that human beings build up constantly to eventually be unleashed, but that's a shoe-horned excuse. Except for one vibrant sequence where a house is engulfed with flames, the constant abuse of orange is stupidly ugly. There are times where Alfredson does pull off some great suspense and pure horror moments, but you need to sit through some tedious television-like framing to experience them.
The only absolute saving grace to the film is still the character of Lisbeth Salander and Noomi Rapace's acting. She richly deserves her popularity with readers and fans as the new female redeemer of action. Ms. Rapace is believable as a purely dangerous individual and is exquisite at emotional scenes. Her reaction shots and facial movements show off more depth and intrigue into her psyche than any Hollywood actress might be able to do once the remake starts filming. Michael Nyqvist continues to do well with Blomkvist, and Micke Spreitz is entertaining as a burly giant thug that is actually smarter than he seems.
In the first film, you were enthralled but waiting patiently for when the two protagonists meet up and solve the mystery together. With THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the creators try to do remake it again but has the mystery solved by one before the other and holds off the eventual reunion until the very end. This terrible mistiming is also hampered by the abrupt ending that thinks it's a cliffhanger. This is surely a big disappointment, as Noomi Rapace is seemingly the only diamond in this murkily rough movie. Unlike the first entry, you might want to wait for the Hollywood-made remake.
FINAL REVIEW: 2 / 5
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