'The Girl Who Played with Fire': Noomi Rapace returns to light up Swedish sequel

MOVIE REVIEW

"If you ever touch me again, I'll kill you," Lisbeth Salander coolly tells a terrified man whose home she's just broken into; he, a rapist and, as she's written in a tattoo on his stomach, "sadistic pig," knows she's absolutely not kidding. You never doubt for a second that this slender, unsmiling woman will do exactly what's necessary to keep herself safe, nor do you doubt that this Swedish-language version of Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire" will show it to us, no matter how hideous or violent it might be.

That said, there's something bracing about this indomitable, unique heroine and the way Noomi Rapace plays her in this movie and the previous (and somewhat better) "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." She's quiet and brooding — she's alone for much of the movie — and her voice is sometimes almost gentle as she interrogates men who disgust her. In this storyline, Salander (a computer hacker and investigations specialist who has come, somewhat questionably, into a vast sum of money) finds herself the prime suspect in a series of murders. Fiercely independent, she hides from those who might help her — like journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) — and leaves cryptic clues as she conducts, superhero-like, her own investigation.

Larsson's novel is so crammed with plot (even Salander's visit to Ikea to furnish her new apartment is elaborately detailed) and characters that it's something of a miracle that it made it to the screen at all, let alone in close to two hours. Much of the story has been trimmed by screenwriter Jonas Fryk-

berg, but the core remains: a meticulous police procedural as we watch the murder investigation unfold (parallel to an investigation of sex trafficking, to be published by Blomkvist's magazine), alongside flashback revelations of Salander's troubled past.

The movie is never less than compelling, particularly when Rapace is on screen, but director Daniel Alfredson can't quite find the delicate tension that Niels Arden Oplev ratcheted up so expertly in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." (The two films use the same actors in the principal roles, but different directors and screenwriters.) The fight scenes here — with a terrifying villain who has a mysterious neurological disorder causing him to feel no pain — seem oddly paced, and the movie's ending is abrupt enough to make you wonder if they just ran out of film. And I wonder how those who haven't read Larsson's book will fare with this movie; I found myself filling in blanks with what I knew from the novel.

But Larsson's fans will enjoy the bits of trivia embedded in the movie (note how Salander's apartment bears the nameplate "V. Kulla" — a Pippi Longstocking reference), and any fan of gritty psychological thrillers will find much here to appreciate. In a haunting flashback, we see Salander as a child, her mouth already set in a determined, grim line; this girl who plays with fire, we learn, didn't escape a few burns.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com