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The Girl Who Played with Fire More at IMDbPro »Flickan som lekte med elden (original title)

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127 reviews in total

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118 out of 139 people found the following review useful:
Exciting thriller, although unable to keep up with its predecessor, 8 September 2009

Author: denglidendekop from Copenhagen, Denmark

Perspective: I am 25, Danish (thus understanding Swedish) and have not read the books.

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" continues smoothly from were "Men Who Hate Women" left off, and lets you easily connect with the core characters. Salander, Blomkvist and the Millennium crew are as usual exposing the darker sides of society and confronting the perpetrators, while Salander being under pressure from all directions.

Where the cruelty and surprises of its predecessor were essential for making it stand out among thrillers, I find this movie more mainstream in storyline and creativity. Salander has lost some of her mysterious goth charm, and the sex trafficking theme is only touched very softly, turning the movie into a regular investigation with a familiar cast of characters.

The movie is worth watching, but it's my impression that you should rather read the book first, to get a much deeper insight in the great novel.

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69 out of 91 people found the following review useful:
A fine sequel, 11 April 2010

Author: MusicaEternal (martinclarke70@gmail.com) from Wales

This film continues where "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" left off. I have to say that personally, I do not really understand the bad reviews, though I must also admit I have not read the books yet, so I am not comparing it to the book, I am simply viewing it as a film in it's own right, and perhaps my review is therefore more generous than it would be if I had read the book too.

I personally thought this movie was riveting, but for different reasons than the first. Firstly, there is a lot of action in this film, I feel it was done well, and it kept the film exciting. Secondly, the depths into Lisbeth's past were also revealed very well. If you didn't learn that Lisbeth is untimately very sensitive behind her "cold" exterior, you learn it from this film.

Yes, certain scenes could have been better shot, better directed etc, but these are minor drawbacks. I feel this is again a must-see, and a very good bridge to the conclusion of this millennium trilogy.

9/10 Recommended!

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94 out of 149 people found the following review useful:
Levels beneath it's predecessor, 18 September 2009

Author: razzle-4 from Denmark

Having read and loved the books I was pleasantly surprised to see the movie version of Men who hates women. It was so close to reaching the same level of intensity and depth as the book itself.

Unfortunately I can't say the same thing for The girl that played with the fire. The filmography, direction and the use of music never really catched on to create the intensity and drama needed for keeping me enthralled to the story. And instead of being taken for another great ride in the universe of Stieg Larson, I was left to the sensation of watching some second grade TV-series.

The difference between the first and the second movie can be summed up to the difference between creating movie magic and making mediocre cinematography.

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30 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
Lisbeth back in action, 20 September 2010

Author: Max_cinefilo89 from Italy

There's an important detail about the film version of The Girl Who Played with Fire (in fact, of the whole Millennium trilogy) that needs to be known in order to understand why some (myself included) perceive this as the most flawed installment in the series: originally, all three adaptations were shot for Swedish television, with six 90-minute episodes condensing Stieg Larsson's remarkable prose. Late in the game, it was decided to give The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a theatrical release, albeit in a shortened version (half an hour was chopped off), and when that became the highest-grossing Swedish film of all time, the other two chapters received the same treatment, with the uncut versions held in storage until spring 2010. In the case of the second film, 60 minutes went missing in the TV-to-cinema transition, and it shows.

Picking up from the first episode, we catch up with Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) enjoying his newfound freedom and restored reputation, while troubled hacker Lisbeth Salander keeps mostly to herself. That is, until Millennium magazine enlists the help of two new collaborators for a special issue about sex trade, and the two are found dead, much like Lisbeth's sadistic guardian, Nils Bjurman. Evidence points to Salander being the killer, and with no way to defend herself she ends up on the run, desperate to prove her innocence, while Mikael tries to help her as much as he can from the office, eventually realizing he's in much bigger trouble than last time.

Based on the summary alone, The Girl Who played with Fire should be as great a thriller as its predecessor. That it isn't is essentially up to a couple of factors: firstly, new director Daniel Alfredson (brother of Let the Right One In's Tomas), who replaced Niels Arden Oplev for the last two bits of the trilogy, occasionally fails to capture the same raw atmosphere as in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; secondly, the aforementioned removal of one hour's worth of footage makes the whole thing feel a bit rushed, particularly in regards to new characters who are hastily introduced and then dispatched just as quickly. Additionally, the extended cameo of boxer Paolo Roberto, playing himself, will make little sense to non-Swedish viewers, though it is faithful to the book and allows for one kick-ass fight scene. As for the final twist, what came off as a shocking revelation on the written page loses a lot of its impact on screen, due in no small measure to Oplev virtually giving it away in the first film.

That the film manages to make any kind of impression is all thanks to one person: Noomi Rapace. Sure, Nyqvist's work is fun to watch, and the supporting players do their job well, but Rapace towers above all of them with her harried, mesmerizing portrayal of a rebellious yet strangely vulnerable woman who just won't take any crap from anyone. There are rumors of a possible Oscar campaign for her work in the trilogy (though if they had to single out a specific installment, the logical choice would be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and she really deserves it, not least for her ability to show off her dramatic skills even in a moment as irrelevant as a gratuitous girl-on-girl scene (again, faithful to the book) that has clearly been added to compensate for occasional shaky plot points.

In short, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a great acting lesson and a fun thriller, but little more. A shame, given the high standards set by Lisbeth's first cinematic adventure.

6,5/10

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32 out of 43 people found the following review useful:
more depth on Lisbeth Salander, 10 July 2010

Author: joruzf from New Jersey, USA

So far the two parts of this trilogy have been intriguing thrillers/mysteries. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the third part. The plot of this film is thick, with complex, 'God less' characters who you're interested in learning about. Lisbeth's chief enemy from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo initiates a revenge strategy which sets the ball rolling for this film. The story offers a lot of reveals over the course of the film about Lisbeth's background and how she begins to appreciate her friendships more over the course of this film than she has in the past. This story shows that when you try and expose truth that powerful people want hidden you're going to receive opposition for it.

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33 out of 47 people found the following review useful:
Incomplete, disappointing, 10 October 2009

Author: apeternier from Switzerland

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Same writer, same saga, different director. And you notice that.

The second chapter of Larsson's trilogy is almost a single continuous story split into two parts (tome II and III), while the first episode is more stand-alone (and IMHO the best one, both on paper and celluloid).

Unfortunately, most of the thrilling elements of the first episode disappear: there's less drama, less time to develop characters (and some are missing), the narration is sometimes incomplete (mainly if you read the book).

A few examples: the initial episode with Lisbeth in holiday is completely skipped (only a very short cut-scene survives), Lisbeth financial help to improve her old tutor Palmgreen's health is missing (and you see Palmgreen two times: the first one with a very pronounced handicap, the second almost healthy, just a few days after...), how did Lisbeth find Bjurman's vacation home?, what about the moto-club?, why is Lisbeth remotely deactivating the apartment alarm and not Bloomqvist with the WASP-on-phone-keyboard trick?, etc. etc. etc.

When compared to the previous cinema transposition (and generally spoken to the original book), tons of details and information creating and enriching the Larsson's world have been removed, resulting into a flesh off sub-version movie adaptation of what originally was an interesting novel, now reduced into a mediocre detective film.

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49 out of 81 people found the following review useful:
Unable to achieve what original did, 3 December 2009

Author: John Smith from New York

'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...

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19 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Second installment of the Swedish Millennium trilogy about heroine Lisbeth Salander made me relish the first film by director Niels Arden Oplev, 11 August 2010

Author: Ruby Liang (ruby_fff) from sf, usa

This follow-up installment by director Daniel Alfredson is a decent mystery thriller with expected action scenes and a string of plot points to keep your interest going. It provides more background information about our tenacious heroine Lisbeth's childhood and her legal guardians, mysterious police reports, and her couple of singularly close friends (Miriam and Paolo, both happened to also know kick-boxing and boxing). Of course, there is Millennium key journalist, Micke Blomkvist and his fellow investigative reporters, and most of the storyline we're following thread after thread, hoping (as everyone in the movie does) to get closer to Lisbeth. From the audience point of view, we get to see her, alright, tagging along with her varying guises to avert danger too close for comfort. She, too, wanted to get to the bottom of the alleged murders that were conveniently linked to her name. The whole movie feels like an expanded "Wallender" episode from the Swedish police-detective TV mystery series.*

"The Girl Who Played With Fire" gave us seemingly straightforward 'facts' as the multiple characters uncover - likened to a 'treasure hunt' (or musical chairs, if you so inclined from the number game of the targets by the villains) vs. providing dramatic highs and penetrating clues, suspenseful and emotional exciting turns as in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," when we followed Lisbeth and Micke on their investigative furtive trails and cerebral deductions. What Danish director Niels Arden Oplev gave us in the first installment can very well stand on its own as a suspense dramatic thriller (which was true to the original Swedish title "Men Who Hate Women"). It's an excellent whodunit - quality entertainment, moving and satisfying wrap-up to the point of tear-jerker, in spite of some plot-required gritty (raw, not for the squeamish) scenes, which were actual arcs for the next two installments to lean on and refer to. Yes, I recall those particular cited scenes in "The Girl Who Played With Fire" when replayed and enhanced our empathy with Lisbeth's character. What this second installment did give us is preparing for the next and final movie in pursuit of Lisbeth's truth along with Micke staunchly standing up for her - so I kinda read the reviews already on IMDb for "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest". Truly anticipate for the wide release of the 'Part 2' of the second installment and getting to the nitty-gritty rhyme and reason of our heroine Lisbeth and hope for the very best for her.

Do see "The Girl With Dragon Tattoo" if you haven't experience it yet. Yes, mind you, there are NFE (not for everyone) scenes, but they are necessary to the understanding of the heroine, Lisbeth Salander, and set up for the next two movies that follow in this worthwhile mystery trilogy from Sweden. Subtitles in English.

* "Wallender" is a popular Swedish detective mystery TV series I was lucky to catch now and then on KCSM (in Bay Area, California) on their 'International Mystery Monday nights' at 10 PM. They are usually intense, violent crime scenes without apology, political story lines, tons of threads (or red-herrings) that compel you to stay through till the end of the 90-minute episode. There's also a British "Wallender" mystery series based on the same Swedish police-detective Kurt Wallender, played by Kenneth Branagh (who's an executive producer for the program).

If you have a chance to catch the German-Austrian production of "Tatort: Crime Scene" - that's a favorite international mystery I highly recommend. Every TV episode is intelligently written and delivered, with crime scenes usually suggestive or chilling effects off-screen, and simply loved the pair of investigators Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk (detective partners brilliantly played by Klaus J. Behrendt and Dietmar Bär - one's kinda skinny, the other's kindly plump). If good old-fashioned mystery style is your cup of tea, try "Maigret" the French, pipe piping burly of an endearing Parisian Inspector, impeccably portrayed by Bruno Crémer, who solves murderous puzzles ever so facile. Great sets, costumes and befitting music as we accompany Maigret, unhurriedly sauntering on police business, visiting the rural provinces of French locales.

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15 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Less engaging and more loosely directed than the first part of the trilogy, 5 October 2009

Author: simona gianotti from Italy

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I had seen "Men who hate women" without having read the novel, had appreciated it, and was willing to see this second part of the trilogy. As far as context, I can repeat what I had already said in my comment for the first movie, that is my surprise to see a modern Sweden not so clean, nor respectful of human rights as we, as southern Europeans, are used to see, or at least to be given such an image. Indeed, we find a country stained, in this case, by harsh stories of trafficking of young girls from eastern Europe, involving high political representatives, policemen and Russian spies.

As far the thriller story, I could perceive the clearly different direction. Whereas in the first movie, each plot twist was developed, sometimes retold, in order not to leave anything unexplained or unaccomplished, here, it seems that something was lost and never captured again, the story is less a thriller and more a detective story, focused on the character of Lisbeth, still superbly interpreted by Noomi Rapace: she dominates every scene, every moment, but, as a consequence, much of the plot, which involves her but many other aspects and characters, seems to be left to those who have read the book and may understand the links. For example, the same trafficking of women, is not developed, being however the main theme of the story itself, it is given much importance at the beginning, and then left undeveloped throughout it. Also the relationship between Blomkvist and his colleague Erika is not understandable: I believed he was in love with Lisbeth, caring for her, and suddenly I find him in bed with his friend-journalist, without letting the viewer know much about their relation.

The general atmosphere is also less tense and enthralling than in "Men who hate women", sometimes the pace is too slow. As a conclusion, I would say this second part of the trilogy is less convincing than the first, less solidly directed, and probably to be more appreciated by those who have read the novel. It is, however, a quite well made product, well interpreted and still instilling a will to see the third part, and, why not, to turn to the written page to look for the "missing" things.

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18 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
Another Engaging Thriller of Millennium, 21 March 2011

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In Stockholm, the young journalist Dag Svensson (Hans-Christian Thulin) offers the thesis of his fiancée Mia Bergman (Jennie Silfverhjelm) about trafficking and prostitution in Sweden to the editor of the Millennium magazine Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist). The couple is temporarily contracted by the magazine to expose the corruption of prominent persons of the Swedish society. Meanwhile, the computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) returns to Stockholm and breaks in the apartment of her guardian, the lawyer Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), seeking her reports and uses his revolver to threaten her guardian. When Dag, Mia and Bjurman are found murdered and the weapon with Lisbeth's fingerprints in the crime scene, she becomes the primes-suspect and is accused of the three murders. However, Mikael does not believe that Lisbeth is guilty and investigates the "johns" of the thesis expecting to find the killer. Meanwhile Lisbeth researches the documents expecting to find the culprit and discloses hidden secrets about her father.

"Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden" a.k.a. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" is another engaging thriller based on the Stieg Larsson's novel. I have just seen this film on an imported DVD and it is impressive the number of characters perfectly developed in the concise screenplay and 129 minutes running time. The sharp direction of Daniel Alfredson succeeds, giving the adequate pace to the film. The tough Lisbeth Salander and the wise journalist Mikael Blomkvist are among my favorite characters of action movies. The performances are excellent and Ms. Lena Endre is an impressively beautiful lady. The greatest flaw in the plot is the great number of gun shots in Zala's farm and no response from the neighbors. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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