The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)
"Flickan som lekte med elden" (original title)

As 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.

Director:

Daniel Alfredson

Writers:

Jonas Frykberg (screenplay), Stieg Larsson (novel)

Stars:

Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Nyqvist	...	Mikael Blomkvist
Noomi Rapace	...	Lisbeth Salander
Lena Endre	...	Erika Berger
Peter Andersson	...	Nils Bjurman
Michalis Koutsogiannakis	...	Dragan Armanskij
Annika Hallin	...	Annika Giannini
Sofia Ledarp	...	Malin Erikson
Jacob Ericksson	...	Christer Malm
Reuben Sallmander	...	Enrico Giannini
Yasmine Garbi	...	Miriam Wu
Ralph Carlsson	...	Gunnar Björk
Georgi Staykov	...	Alexander Zalachenko
Hans Christian Thulin	...	Dag Svensson (as Hans-Christian Thulin)
Jennie Silfverhjelm	...	Mia Bergman
Per Oscarsson	...	Holger Palmgren

Storyline

Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.

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Plot Keywords:

journalist | murder | sweden | sex trafficking | on the run | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brutal violence including a rape, some strong sexual content, nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Music Box Films Site [us] Official Facebook

Country:

Sweden Denmark Germany

Language:

Swedish Italian French

Release Date:

18 September 2009 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Filming Locations:

Götgatan, Södermalm, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

€4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£404,896 (UK) (27 August 2010)

Gross:

$6,942,564 (USA) (4 February 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Yellow Bird Films, ZDF Enterprises, Sveriges Television (SVT)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min 183 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the early scene where the editors are meeting in the Millennium office, there's a pile of magazines. Prominently displayed is a copy of EXPO, the anti-fascist magazine Stieg Larsson helped found in 1995.

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Goofs

It is impossible to dig oneself out of the grave after being buried for a few hours. There is no air to breathe during all this time.

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Connections

Referenced in Max Pinlig 2 - sidste skrig (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Calling You"
Text & Music by Jacob Groth and Misen Larsen (as Misen Groth)

User Reviews

Unable to achieve what original did

'The Girl Who Played with Fire' is a second part of "Millennium" trilogy and a sequel to 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', and it's released in the same year as original, which is kind of strange if you ask me, because we are talking about two movies here and not two episodes of some mini-series. Anyway, my expectations were pretty high as i expected this sequel to be just as good as the original was. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen, original remains "untouched" in terms of script, acting and quality in general as this sequel falls short, unable to accomplish those things on the same level.

The story is set one year after the events in original, Mikael Blomkvist is back at work for "Millennium" newspaper and Lisbeth Salander is drifting around the planet. I'm not gonna go in-depth with the plot and the script of this sequel, but it doesn't even come close to the level of the script used in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', it has several holes, it's not nearly as intriguing as the first one was, it basically follows the regular procedure with a twist or two, nothing compelling or memorable. Casting wasn't as good as it was in the first movie, other than the characters that are already known from the first film there was no one that made something good happen, they usually just appear in the frames without putting on any real performance, and i'm also talking about main villain and his henchman too. Atmosphere was also a notch lower than it was in the original, music still isn't improved and used better. The landscape that decorated the photography of the first movie isn't the part of this movie, the events mainly happen on the ordinary places like city streets.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is still fairly worth watching, its content is basically interesting if you generally like thrillers, but don't expect the rerun of the original in terms of substance of the script and quality film-making in general, because that's not gonna happen, at least not in this movie...