Review of The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) by Filipeneto — 24 Oct 2020

I came to know this Swedish film trilogy through its famous American "twin brother", and I believe I was not the only one. Despite international credits, it is unusual for Swedish cinema to be widely publicized. Neither its literature! So I also didn't read the book to judge how the adaptation did it justice, but I do believe those who say it was a relatively faithful adaptation. This film was directed by Daniel Alfredson, who succeeds Neil Arden Oplev.

This film is a sequel and follows the logical sequence of events after the first film, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”: after a time abroad, Lisbeth Salander, now owner of a small fortune, returns to Sweden at the same time that Millennium magazine, directed by Erika Berger and Mikael Blomkvist, is preparing to expose a network of pimping and women trafficking. But the murder of two magazine employees and also the person in charge of Lisbeth's legal custody causes authorities to start looking for her. Determined to avenge his dead colleagues and convinced that someone is using her as a scapegoat, Mikael is going to investigate and help his friend.

The film has a good plot and a story full of mystery, that knows how to capture our curiosity, but we need to be attentive because it gives several twists and turns. There are also plenty of action, which makes everything more fun to watch. What cost me the most was the disinterested way in which Alfredson directed it. He gives the film an overly televised feel and is unable to create the atmosphere of mystery and tension that made the first film work so perfectly. The characters also no longer had the same ability to reach the public.

The cast is overwhelmingly the same as we saw in the previous film but, as I said, it doesn't achieve the same impact, which does not mean that it did a bad job. Noomi Rapace sees her status as a protagonist consolidated with this film, which is entirely around her; Michael Nyqvist, now in a more reserved position, also gave us a good job, even becoming, for me, the actor who is closest to the work developed in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. Lena Endre had more space to show what is worth and it also gives us a satisfactory job. The film also features good collaborations from Peter Andersson, Yasmine Garbi, Ralph Carlsson, Micke Spreitz, Per Oscarsson and Georgi Staykov.

Technically, the film is too televised in its appearance and in the way it seems to have been thought... so that I don't even know if it will have circulated in theaters. Anyway, it's something that didn't cause me any problems, although it's a shame that the production didn't think about creating a final product with a more cinematic shape. Cinematography and editing are regular, but do not excel in brilliance. The film is long and in some versions (dedicated to TV) it is divided into two halves. The effects are good and fulfill their role, the sets and costumes, as well as the careful choice of landscapes and filming locations, increase the visual beauty of the whole set. The soundtrack does its job well.