The Girl Who Played with Fire – Blu-ray Review
The Film:
Steve Brock: The Girl Who Played With Fireis the second film based on Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, begun with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Though this middle film has a different director (Daniel Alfredson), the film has the some sort of moody Scandinavian feel as the first film. Very much a guilty pleasure, like the Saw series, because we know what to expect. Stockholm architecture. Computer technology. Steamy sex. Tasers.
As the connecting feature, the story suffers a bit, as it sets up the final piece. The film neglects much of the ancillary character development of the novel; in fact, if one has not read the book, one will have little understanding of the parade of characters here. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) also receives short shrift. But per the texts, the pock-marked Nyquist brings neither good looks nor charm needed to play Blomkvist; enter Daniel Craig in the new David Fincher version of Dragon Tattoo.
Jon Peters: You bring up some interesting points. I think the new director stumbles in the first handful of minutes, getting everything set-up for this story, which is far more streamlined, than the multi-layered The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Outside of that, director Daniel Alfredson delivers one of the more erotic thrillers in recent memory, as the story blitzes itself towards a powerhouse ending. Of course, none of this would work without the anchor of this franchise: Noomi Rapace. I’m not sure if my vocabulary is deep enough to come up with the adjectives needed to describe her performance as Lisbeth Salander, a performance so good, it’s going to be legendary.
Steve Brock: The incendiary fire scenes are among the best of the movie. Salander’s back-story from Dr. Holger Palmgren (Per Oscarsson) is nicely rendered even if the story has familiar Darth Vadar underpinnings. Elizabeth’s own hazy flashbacks in the psych hospital bring chills. A chase scene, albeit brief, evokes the French Connection.
Jon Peters: The Girl Who Played with Firecomes at a curious time to America. We’re in the midst of a sex ring around the border of Texas and Mexico, something that seems to be as dangerous and sickening as the drug cartels leaking into our streets, which makes for added value in the film’s plot. Again, that’s what makes Lisbeth Salander such a curious heroine. She’s flawed; she’s been abused, raped, misunderstood, yet comes as a vengeful saint. It’s a quality that serves well into America, as we’re a country who is in love with superheroes, also a key to why her character is so well known and loved.
I think Stieg Larsson knew this, and it aids the contempary feeling to Salander’s arc. Alfredson plays with this, which creates a memorizing finale, something Tarantino would be proud of. In fact, the finale is so good, it alone makes The Girl Who Played with Fire one of the better films this year.
To read more of Jon Peters and Steve Brock’s discussion of the film, click here.
The Blu-ray:
Audio/Video: Music Box Films’ HD presentation is quite strong. Blacks, colors, details are all bold, clear, and film-like. The DD 5.1 track is fairly average for a drama. Little surround use, solid reproduction of the dialogue and score come across nicely.
Sadly, outside of the film’s trailer, there are no extras.
Conclusion: Erotic and entertaining in all the right areas; decent Blu-ray.
The Film: Rating: 
The Blu-ray: Rating:
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