A year after tackling corporate corruption and solving a forty year mystery, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) takes on the world of prostitution and sex trafficking. Millennium, the magazine he works for, hires a young journalist, Dag Svensson (Hans Christian Thulin), who has facts regarding prostitution in Sweden. His girlfriend, Mia Bergman (Jennie Silfverhjelm), is writing her thesis on the topic and they have uncovered several powerful and influential men. Mia's thesis focuses on the girls forced into prostitution, while Dag's work with Millennium focuses on exposing the men.
But before they can publish the article, Dag and Mia are killed in their apartment. The gun used belongs to lawyer Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), who is found dead the next day. The forensic team finds fingerprints on the gun, belonging to Lisbeth Salander (Rapace);. Lisbeth has a police record and a connection to the one of the deceased: Bjurman was her guardian.
Despite the evidence and the police manhunt, Mikael does not believe Lisbeth is guilty. He leads a personal investigation to prove her innocence and to find the real killer. Meanwhile, Lisbeth starts an investigation on her own when the name Zala keeps popping up. Who can you trust? Who will find the truth, and how long can Lisbeth evade the police?
While I enjoyed the first novel in the famed Millennium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the sequel was better. It grabbed my attention from the first page and kept me on the edge of my seat until the last pages. Maybe it was because I was already familiar with the characters and didn't have to spend time going back to figure out the character names. Whatever the reason, I was excited to see how filmmakers would bring this film to the big screen.
Like it's predecessor, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this film sticks close to the novel. There are minor plot and character omissions, but they are not necessary to understanding this story. With a different director at the helm (Niels Arden Oplev directed the first) the film could suffer from pacing or stylistic issues, but Daniel Alfredson keeps the film on track. The plot, pacing, and performances are strong and feels like it belongs in the same family as the first. Michael Nyqvist and the rest of the cast deliver strong performances, but all are shadowed by Noomi Rapace. She fully embodies Lisbeth and holds the spotlight throughout the film.
This film is in Swedish, with subtitles. There is a significant amount of swearing and several sex / nudity scenes, although not as many as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
A good film, but not as exciting as it's predecessor. As usual, the book is better!
The Girl Who Played with Fire [Flickan som lekte med elden] (2009) 129 minutes
Rating: R for brutal violence including a rape, some strong sexual content, nudity and language
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Starring: Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist
Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander
Lena Endre as Erika Berger
Yasmine Garbi as Miriam Wu
Georgi Staykov as Alexander Zalachenko
Micke Spreitz as Ronald Neidermann
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