The Girl Who Played with Fire

I'm at a loss to figure out why the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's extremely popular Millennium trilogy of novels haven't quite clicked with me. The Swedish film noirs have been the apple of many a crime fans eye, elevating its enigmatic heroine, Lisbeth Salander(Noomi Rapace) into something of a Princess Leia for the modern times. In fact, the books have been so popular that David Fincher is preparing an American film adaptation of the trilogy. The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second leg of the series, and while it is superior than its predecessor, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it still doesn't spend nearly enough time developing a story worthy of Lisbeth's or our attentions. Instead it presents yet another poorly developed mystery, pieced together at a glacial pace, counting on our interest in Lisbeth to be enough.

Lisbeth is in a completely different place than she was in the last film. Flush with cash, she disappears for a worldwide trip to get some distance from the pain of her most recent adventure. But it doesn't really help.She's still obsessed with the man who brutally raped her in the last film, her court appointed guardian, Nils Bjurman. She meeted about some pretty harsh justice on him for his crime, but she pays him yet another visit just to emphasize the point. Soon after, Bjurman turns up dead, and Lisbeth is the prime suspect. Around this same time, two journalists working on a sex-trade expose for her former lover Mikael Blomkvist's magazine wind up murdered as well. Lisbeth goes on the run, and Mikael throws caution out the window in order to clear her name.

The sexually charged mystery provides the perfect opportunity to delve into Lisbeth's history of abuse. Her father, Zalachenko, was a former Soviet spy with a penchant for beating up Lisbeth's mother. Lisbeth, then 12 years old, took fiery steps to end the cycle of violence, an act which got her thrown into the penitentiary and labeled a crazy person. The script by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg only wakes up when Lisbeth is in full-on revenge mode. Director Daniel Alfredson seems to be struggling to keep up what little momentum the lackadaisical plot has conjured up. Most of the clue finding revolves around Lisbeth typing away at her computer, or Mikael reading the newspaper. Not exactly compelling stuff. The villains of the story are so poorly developed that one of them is a hulking, blonde-haired Arian brute who doesn't feel pain. He's like a transplant from a bad James Bond film. Alfredson's directorial influence is non-existent.

There's still a disturbing pall that hangs over the story, much like in Dragon Tattoo. The world inhabited by these characters is one of extreme mysogeny and sexual hatred, where all the men are loathsome creatures capable of anything at any time. Only Mikael Blomkvist seems to be the knight in shining armor, at least as portrayed by Michael Nyqvist.  A lot of people have praised him for his performance, but i find Mikael to be the least interesting character of all. He's a little too perfect, despite attempts to dirty him up a little here by giving him a fling with a co-worker. What he really needs is a personality injection. If he were any more understated he'd be dead. Only Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth stands out. It would be so easy to misplay her character, a bisexual mathematical genius suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. Rapace is all intense attitude and presence. When she's on the screen, it's impossible not to sit up and take notice. Ok, it doesn't hurt that she's got a little goth hotness goin' on.

I don't know what Fincher has planned for these remakes. In most cases, the prevailing worry is that they'll replace potboiling mystery with unnecessary action, in order to make their film more marketable. This might be the one times where I'm hoping that they'll inject some much needed adrenaline into this solid if unspectacular franchise.