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If The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo taught the world anything, it's that you don’t want to mess with Lisbeth Salander. If its sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, teaches the world anything, it’s that you probably don’t even want to know Lisbeth Salander, let alone pick a fight with her.
So how is it that the most dangerous, untouchable literary character since perhaps Voldemort is suddenly the summer’s coolest heroine? Well thanks to Steig Larsson’s fantastic vision and Noomi Rapace’s chillingly intense portrayal, Ms. Salander’s more than just a pint-size ninja with anger issues -- she’s a strong woman with an unshakable moral compass and a passionate desire to do the right thing, even if that means taking the law into her own, shockingly capable, hands.
The Millennium series, the Swedish trilogy by the late Steig Larsson, has swiftly managed to take the world by storm. All three books have already become films in Sweden, and The Girl Who Played With Fire just arrived in American theaters this month, only days after The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo came out on DVD.
If the names Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander mean nothing to you, here’s a little exposition: Mikael is a muckraking journalist who runs Millennium, a popular magazine that publishes scandalous and revealing political stories. Lisbeth Salander is the titular girl with the (super awesome) dragon tattoo, a computer hacking prodigy who gives the term “small but mighty” a whole new meaning. In the first book/movie, Lisbeth and Mikael team up to solve a murder Cold Case style, and end up forming a rather sweet friendship. Unfortunately, (spoiler alert, if you haven’t read the books) their friendship doesn’t end too well, leading to the sequel...
The Girl Who Played with Fire is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s full of twists and out-of-the-blue action scenes that, while sometimes hard to stomach, only power the book forward at full force. About 10 more central characters are introduced in detail and each one of them adds a different yet equally important aspect to the story. Unfortunately, this doesn’t translate very well in the film, which has a new director and screenwriter than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The plot is a jumble of story lines, and characters that do not have the time the book offered to be fleshed out into something important seem out of place. It feels as though the screenwriter wanted to include every character and plot from the novel, but only had time to offer an appetizer of each.
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The bare essentials remain the same - Lisbeth has been accused of triple murder and one of her only supporters is Mikael Blomkvist, with whom she cut off all ties a year before. Now, Mikael must prove her innocence to a nation that believes Lisbeth is a psychotic killer on a rampage. A subplot about sex trafficking is a bit too vague and could have used much more explanation.
The film does include many specific scenes from the book, and some are even word-for-word accurate. However, the familiarity of those moments only knock the film off balance when it suddenly makes a drastic change. While The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo left out several of its book’s details, it found a focus and stayed on track. It’s successor seems more like an ADD little sibling.
The best thing about The Girl Who Played with Fire is that it realizes it’s greatest asset is Lisbeth Salander. Noomi Rapace is billed first and has the most screen time, even if it’s mostly spent alone in smoldering silence. For those who thought Lisbeth had suffered enough in the first film, get ready for more suffering -- things go from bad to worse for poor Lisbeth. Her only moment of happiness comes from a night spent with her sometimes-lover, Miriam Wu- played with a tough sweetness by Yasmine Garbi.
The film may rush through many a scene, but Lisbeth and Miriam’s moment together definitely gets its fair share of screen time, and very little of it is left to the imagination. The tenderness of Lisbeth and Miriam’s time together is also a much welcomed contrast to the violent rape scenes the Millennium series is just about known for. Even the brief flashbacks of Lisbeth’s assault from the previous film are just as hard to endure as watching them the first time around.
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The best parts of the film are -- as they are in the books -- the moments when Lisbeth is kicking ass and taking names, or rather hacking into computers to find names and then destroying the lives of the bastards to whom those names belong. Pissing Lisbeth Salander off could very well get a person killed, or at the very least tasered in the crotch. And while Lisbeth may not be the best role model for life choices -- asking my parents for an eyebrow ring because Lisbeth Salander has one probably wasn’t the best argument -- she’s practically the poster girl for self defense. I’d never thought about using my car keys as makeshift brass knuckles, but thanks to Lisbeth I’m now prepared for an ominous parking lot.
The Girl Who Played with Fire is not at all a bad movie, but if you’re going to have the full experience, you’ll have to read the novel. The fun of the series is getting into these characters’ heads and seeing, sometimes even feeling, just what makes them tick. Part of the adventure is unraveling the mysteries page by page and then putting the book aside to digest the massive plot twists that have just been revealed to you ever so subtly.
Steig Larsson’s work is a roller coaster of emotion, and it’s definitely worth the ride. I’m tentative about the American remake that’s in development for next year, but at the same time I’m eager to see what this country has to bring to the Millennium table. Until then, I’ll be lobbying for an Academy Award nomination for Noomi Rapace this season. Bring it on, 2011!
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