The Girl Who Played With Fire

(15) 129mins

Director: Daniel Alfredson.

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Lena Andre, Georgi Staykov.

THE second of the Millennium trilogy has hit the screens with less of a fuss than the first (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) but it’s just as tense a drama with a good solid plot to hold it together.

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Rapace was heralded as a star after the first movie and she keeps the momentum going in this sequel.

As opposed to Hollywood-style trilogies, you’ll be somewhat lost if you don’t see the first film before arriving at this one.

Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) returns to Sweden a year after the trauma experienced with a serial killer and being sexually assaulted in that debut movie.

This time she gets involved in more murders, but this time is framed as the killer. Enter her friend and journalist Blomkvist (Nyqvist) who knew two of the victims but knows Salander is innocent.

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The story of Salander’s past, hinted at in ‘Dragon Tattoo’, is explained and there are some surprising revelations and shocks in store.

I’m not sure the subtitles are the best as several words that sounded English but with a Swedish accent were written up differently and on occasions the white type blended into the background so they couldn’t be read.

The Hollywood remake with Daniel Craig will, no doubt, look much more like a blockbuster, while this Swedish original has more of a feel of TV’s Wallander (Swedish version) on the big screen. But the cinema obviously brings a bigger impact.

This is a gritty and hard-hitting drama that doesn’t pull punches. But, as usual, for the full story read the book.

four out of five stars

Steve Payne

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