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The Girl Who Played with Fire
Flickan som lekte med elden
2009 129 min Denmark, Germany, Sweden R 16+
★7.0
Drama, Action, Thriller, Crime, Mystery
Director: Daniel Alfredson
🎭 Based on
«The Girl Who Played with Fire»
byStieg Larsson
Trailers
Description
Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.
Budget:
$4.4M
US Gross:
$7.64M
Worldwide:
$67.13M
Starring
Noomi Rapace
Actor
Michael Nyqvist
Actor
Lena Endre
Actor
Awards
1 win & 4 nominations total
Key opinion
The Girl Who Played with Fire is widely viewed as a structurally competent but inferior follow-up to the original film. While fans of the source material appreciate its commitment to the narrative, many critics find the sequel less atmospheric and more disjointed than its predecessor.
| Acting | Noomi Rapace delivers a commanding, nuanced performance that effectively anchors the film's exploration of Lisbeth Salander's traumatic past. | |
| Production | The film maintains a distinct, cold Scandinavian aesthetic that provides a gritty, grounded sense of place. | |
| Adaptation | The film's quality as an adaptation is debated: some viewers appreciate its faithfulness to the novel's complex conspiracy plots, while others find the condensed narrative to be disjointed and lacking necessary emotional clarity. | |
| Pacing | Opinions on the pacing are split; some find the two-hour runtime tightly plotted and engaging, while others feel the middle sections drag and suffer from a lack of mounting tension. | |
| Direction | The directorial shift to Daniel Alfredson is polarizing, with some praising his ability to maintain the series' tone and others arguing he lacks the visual flair and atmospheric tension established in the first film. | |
| Screenplay | The screenplay is criticized for relying on clichéd tropes regarding Eastern European criminal syndicates and cartoonish villains that undermine the grounded tone of the first entry. |