The Girl Who Played With Fire

Director: Daniel Alfredson

Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre

Rated MA

Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist reprise their roles from the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in this second instalment of the late Swedish author Steig Larssen’s Millennium trilogy

Whilst lacking the punch of the first movie, The Girl Who Played With Fire is still a satisfying film. Rapace and Nyqvist continue to evolve their characters. Rapace is particularly memorable as Lisbeth Salander – she almost burns up the celluloid with her voracious performance.

In The Girl Who Played With Fire, Salander returns from a vacation made from the ill-gotten gains of her hacking exploits undertaken in the first feature, only to discover she is being stitched up for the murder of her attacker from the last film.

The police and the media are ready to have Salander put away for life – but Salander has other plans... So too does Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) the crusading reporter from the Millenium, who decides he needs to help clear Salander’s name.

Director Daniel Alfredson delivers a taut and gritty film that stays true to Larsen’s novel and as such spends considerable time setting the scene for the next movie Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. No matter, its worth seeing for Rapace who provides one of the most intense screen heroines you will ever see,