The Girl Who Played With Fire
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist
After director Niels Arden Oplev’s near-perfect adaptation of popular novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, there’s a lot of expectation surrounding sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire.
Sadly,
latest director Daniel Alfredson makes one wrong turn after another.
Whereas the first film was a thrilling drama, the second instalment is
dull and confusing.
The sequel sees journalist Mikael
Blomkvist (Nyqvist) trying to clear the name of computer hacker Lisbeth
Salander (Rapace) after a journalist and his girlfriend are murdered.
As the pair close in on the real killer, someone from Salander’s past
comes back to haunt her.
Alfredson has stuffed his film with
characters that add little to the plot, and it plods along without any
real urgency. Criminally, the chemistry between Mikael and Lisbeth is
largely downplayed, while the climax veers dangerously close to the
ridiculous.
Rapace is superb as the complex, damaged heroine but, after this misstep, final instalment The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest has its work cut out to save the trilogy.
Good for: Those who haven’t read the book.
2/5
Watch The Girl Who Played With Fire trailer here.
Review: Pierre De Villiers
