The Girl Who Played With Fire review

Something that can kill any thriller or mystery for me is a lack of style or suspense. Earlier this year I reviewed part 1 of the Millennium trilogy "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", which was being beefed up as a major deal. While I did really enjoy the stylish, sleuth picture I was never fully in love with it all. Now with the "The Girl Who Played with Fire" I'm kind of on the fence about how much I really care this whole story ends.

Like I stated above a huge killer for these sort of movies is a lack of style and suspense and that's the biggest issue here. Director Niels Arden Oplev stepped away and Daniel Alfredson took over for the last two movies. Apparently this was a fucking mistake. Oplev did a great job of creating a gloomy and grim world that our heroin Lisbeth Salander existed in, Alfredson however works to remind us that this movie series is based on books and also a tv show by displaying dull stylization and throwing as much random narrative at us as possible and seeing what sticks. Basically this is a mystery, in a mystery, about another mystery and none of it is made particularly interesting.

Noomi Rapace is Lisbeth, the gothy, hacker with a knack for getting to the bottom of tough cases. We meet up with her a year after the last film as she's preparing to head back to home after noticing some emails on her parole officers computer that she wasn't too fond of. (That makes a lot more sense if you've seen the first movie) On the flip side is friend and journalist Mikael Bloomkvist who's working on a new story with a new reporter involving sex trafficking. When the the new reporter and his author wife are found dead and the murder weapon has Lisbeth's finger prints on it... then something is thought to be... amiss by Bloomkvist and Lisbeth has to decide how she's going to clear her name and find out who's behind it all.

There's more to it all, but nothing too note worthy since none of it works to full capacity. The main yarn is that of a suspenseful expose' story. Really our main character this time out isn't Lisbeth, but instead Mikael; who follows up leads and attempt to figure out who the mystery man behind it all is other than the codename: Zala. Some of his poking and prodding lead to intrigue, but most to boredom. Lisbeth occasionally comes out of her hiding place to strong arm some nasty men into getting answers, but really doesn't do too much until the final act which is... somewhat interesting, but never too thrilling or suspenseful. The revelation of who's behind it all isn't particularly startling either. I question is it the direction or just the story that makes it all so weak. It's very much a bridge plot that appears to lead up directly to part III ('The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'), but still I feel like with better writing and direction it's a movie that could've been at the least entertaining.

So now this brings up the whole remake business. David Fincher has officially began shooting of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' with Rooney Mara ('A Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'The Social Network') as Lisbeth. Fincher's not known to make mistakes so I have no doubt in his ability to craft an interesting if not widely better thriller than the original. But if things come to pass and the whole trilogy is remade I wouldn't mind seeing it done more like 'Red Riding' in which each film has a different director that brings something slightly different to the table. In anycase I feel like most name filmmakers that could be brought up to do this would probably handle it better than it has been.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo review

Oh those crazy Swedes and their sex and violence filled ideas... ahh... but seriously this is a thriller that does have it's healthy dose of both. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is one of those films that includes many elements for which we've seen before in thrillers, mysteries and horror films, but finds a way to piece them all together in an interesting and provocative way. At the same time it's a much rougher film than I expected including sadists and rapists coupled with the already running who-done-it and what'd-they-do mystery.

Our girl with the dragon tattoo is named Lisbeth Salander a punk, qusi biker/goth sleuth and hacker that works for a major security firm in Stockholm. After she's put onto the job of tracking a magazine mogul/ reporter after he's sentenced to prison she continues looking into him after her job has ended. The magazine reporter, Mikael Blomkvist is spending his remaining six free months by taking a job in another part of the country for an old man trying to find the killer of his favorite niece. Fun part, a body was never found and the incident happened over 40 years ago. Needless to say he's got a lot of work ahead of him. The man is one of the heads of the Vanger group, which was a family owned corporation with a lot of secrets. However what is not so secret is the fact that most of the family hates one another and so it could have been any number of them who killed her. As time passes Mikael delves further and further into the families past and uncovers more and more dirt, but still not much of anything to link a single person to a crime with no clues. Not until Lisbeth comes to the forefront of his life.

Now going into to her background is a bit tricky as I don't want to give much away in the area of the darker, nastier things in the picture. But I'll tell you that she's not somebody to fuck with and have her just take it as she proves throughout a number of scenes. Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth with a bit more doe-eyed-ness then I would've expected, but there's something within her performance that works. I guess I like the idea of the tough sleuth character considering we see so many sheepish ones in films nowadays. I'm sure with the other two films probably making their way to the U.S. soon we'll see what the rest of her story is really about, but there's a lot of hints to her sorted past. Fun stuff me thinks.

As a whole I don't find it as perfect a thriller, but a damn entertaining one made with a lot of style and guts. There are things that remind of 'Se7en' as well as elements that pop up in a very novel fashion like they would and probably do in the book series. It's not something enough to shout out rip off or anything or even enough to distract from the picture. Fact is I'm just damn pleased to see so many well made mystery based films in one year that are getting big press. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is one of those that'll be talked about highly for a while before disappearing (like "The Vanishing", pun not intended) or perhaps it's fate will be decided upon the release of the next two films in the series; who can say just yet. But it's a film for those who love crime thrillers and grim character pieces. It's got its thrills and bumps and humor and sex appeal to go with it's expansive and classy yet gritty storyline. If the film is near you it's definitely something to go check out.