The Girl Who Played With Fire

Opening in New York City today is the film adaptation of the second installment of late Swedish author Steig Larsson's runaway Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, released by Music Box Films. The series has sold more than 3.5 million copies in the U.S., and spent many weeks atop the New York Times bestseller list. Although less intrigue-noir and more straight thriller than the earlier release, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, (which garnered $9 million in U.S. tickets sales) the film is a sculpted, engaging work that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The film follows the tale of Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), a slender waif of a cybergenius computer hacker born into a government cover-up that has put her at the mercy of hit men, bikers, the police, and a sadistic ex-spy that is unfortunately her father. When Salander's fingerprints are found on a weapon used to kill two journalists on the verge of exposing an Eastern European sex trafficking operation, her ability to remain hidden is the only thing keeping her from imprisonment.

As journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), who had befriended Salander during a previous investigation, tries to persuade the police of her innocence, he unearths some disturbing facts about Salander's childhood, including her commitment to psychiatric care at age 12, and her declaration of legal incompetence at age 18.

Working from both sides, Blomkvist, Salander, and Detective Jan Bublanski (John Kyl�n) attempt to solve the murder and the scandal that will implicate high-ranking members of Swedish society, business, and government in numerous illegal and unethical activities.

With her angular features, slim physique, and jet-black hair, Rapace is a visually stunning heroine. But it is her ability to move through her world with a cool detachment that allows the viewer to be truly immersed in the horrific events of her life without pitying Salander.

"Lisbeth is a human being who's suffered a lot," said Rapace about her character. "She needed to create her own world, her own set of rules, as the ones that exist haven't helped her. She's always been completely alone in her world...has locked away her emotions, her heart, to protect herself. Everything inside her is deeply rooted, and once she's let someone in she's incredibly faithful and loyal. She will fight to the death for what she believes in."

During the course of The Girl Who Played With Fire, Salander does indeed fight to the death-and beyond. Facing down the contract hit placed upon her by her father, she takes on burly bikers, persistent thugs, and her monstrous half-brother, whose congenital analgesia makes him immune to pain. She literally rises from the grave to plant an axe in the skull of her father, defected Soviet spy Zala, whom as a child she doused with gasoline and lit ablaze after his countless beatings of her mother became too much to bear.

She also fights to protect those she cares about, including her sometimes lover Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi), a beautiful martial artist and clotheshorse. The film features a deliciously sensual lesbian sex scene between the two women on the floor of Salander's sparsely furnished apartment. After, as Salander lights a cigarette, Wu gives her a gold cigarette case, a birthday present from the previous year. "You are the only one who ever gives me presents," comments Salander, and her accompanying look is truly heartbreaking.

The film hews closely to Larsson's book, presenting an authentic view of modern Stockholm and bringing to life the action with heightened realism. For those who have read the Millennium trilogy, the film provides a visual depiction of what has previously only existed in the mind's eye. But those unfamiliar with the popular literature will not suffer for a moment.

Director Daniel Alfredson does a beautiful job adapting the manuscript to the large screen, and is certain to snag kudos for what will surely be among this year's top indie picks. Best of all, the final part of the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, is already set for release in October of this year. Look for the DVD box set by January 2011.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is in limited release; check your local listings for show times.

I can't say the film doesn't make you ask questions and feed a curiosity about what it all means. Haneke is brilliant at this. But here, the exposition seemed lazy and the film so purposely vague that it became more annoying than fascinating. While it is clear that the adults in the film and their treatment of the children and each other were feeding the adults that the children would soon become (during the Third Reich no less), we still come out of it going... "huh?" Sometimes that's welcome. (I mean you, Donnie Darko.") But here, I wanted a bit more reason and purpose.