Film Review: 'Girl Who Played with Fire' more artsy than entertaining

As punk-rock computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, Noomi Rapace remains the best reason to see the Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy."Music Box Films

Americans don't mind translations, but they're not crazy about subtitles. Perhaps that's one way to explain the discrepancy between the remarkable success of the books in the late Stieg Larsson's so-called "Millennium Trilogy" and their considerably less popular movie adaptations.

As punk-rock computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, Noomi Rapace remains the best reason to see the Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy."Music Box Films

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden)

In "The Girl Who Played With Fire" -- the second installment in the "Millennium" trilogy following "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- Mikael Blomkvist ...

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

Length: 129 minutes

Released: July 9, 2010 Limited

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Lena Endre, Georgi Staykov, Sofia Ledarp

Director: Daniel Alfredson

Writer: Jonas Frykberg, Stieg Larsson

More info and showtimes »

Originally published in Sweden, the "Millennium Trilogy" — "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," as they are titled in English — continue to dominate fiction best-seller lists. Yet the Swedish-made movie versions of these books so far have been restricted in the U.S. to "art" houses; the films are big hits internationally, but most American viewers seem content to wait for the upcoming Hollywood adaptations, scheduled to be directed by David Fincher ("Zodiac," "Se7en").

I hate to admit it, but this time the foreign-filmaphobes may have a point; Fincher seems ideally suited to this dark, gruesome material. In the meantime, "The Girl Who Played with Fire" — the second film in the series — rolls into town less than two months after "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" completed a nice eight-week run at Malco's Ridgeway Four.

Whatever the quality of the U.S. remakes, the original films will remain valuable for their authentic Swedish atmosphere and sensibility, and — especially — for the presence of the intense and convincing Noomi Rapace as the trilogy's tatooed-and-pierced heroine, punk-rock computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, perhaps the most indelible book-series character since Harry Potter. Like its predecessor, however, "The Girl Who Played with Fire" is more entertaining than artful; with its glossy production values, high professionalism and dollops of sex and violence, it offers mystery aficionados the same satisfactions as a good made-for-TV cable crime series.

Directed this time by Daniel Alfredson (whose grasp of the complicated material is not as sure as that of his predecessor, Niels Arden Oplev), "The Girl Who Played with Fire" frustrates fans of the first film by devoting most of its time to keeping Lisbeth away from the series' male hero and her onetime lover, crusading reporter Mikael Blomkvist (again played by Michael Nyqvist). This time, tiny but tough Lisbeth — she's 5 feet tall and 88 pounds, we are told — is a fugitive from justice: She's the prime suspect in a pair of murders linked to a prostitution ring involving high-ranking politicians and businessmen. While Lisbeth seeks revenge on those who have wronged her and delves into the secrets of her past, Blomkvist works to prove her innocence.

Positing a conspiracy that extends its tentacles into law enforcement, the medical establishment and the legal establishment, the mystery plot here is not as self-contained as the first film's; in the tradition of such previous middle-of-the-trilogy stories as "The Empire Strikes Back," the movie leaves several loose ends dangling. The film also seems pulpier than its predecessor, with an over-reliance on coincidence and an army of supporting characters who would be right at home on the screen of a 1970s drive-in, including biker arsonists, a burn-faced evildoer, a female kickboxer and a chainsaw-wielding "blond tank" of a giant who can't feel pain because of his "congenital analgesia." To this end, the prurient scene here is not another sadistic rape but a lesbian tryst involving Lisbeth and a curvaceous roommate.

In Swedish (mostly) with English subtitles, "The Girl Who Played with Fire" is exclusively at the Ridgeway Four.

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