Movie Rant: The Girl Who Played With Fire
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD (You didn’t listen the last time, did you? 
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I want your opinion about this flick … but first, here’s mine:
The Girl Who Played With Fire movie adaptation did nothing to upset me. Honestly. But it didn’t really do much to turn me on either.
It was a very competent, well-crafted, well-edited adaptation of a longer TV-series version for the big screen.
And it’s … okay.
All the essential scenes are there: Lisbeth threatening Bjurman, Lisbeth kicking the fat asses of two no-good bikers, Paolo Roberto slugging it out with The Blonde Giant a.ka. Ronald Niedermann, the bloody shot-at-close-range bodies of cutesy idealist journalist Dag Svensson and his girlfriend Mia Bergman and – of course – the infamous scene where Lisbeth is shot three times herself at close range by her nasty dad, Alexander Zalachenko, former Soviet GRU commander living in protected exile in Sweden. And then is buried alive. And then digs herself up again. And then hammers an axe into daddy’s right leg and smashes him in the head with a shovel. All that and steamy lesbian sex between Miriam Wu and Lis on the floor of her apartment in Lundagatan.
What more could you possibly ask for?
Uhm, how about a little more, uhm … heart?
Sure, sure, there are loooots of other good stuff: Action scenes, drama, boxing, burning barns, car chases, Mikael Nyqvist’s seriously knitted brows and well …
But in the end I felt a little like this was just an exercise in cut-pasting together the key scenes from the book in an understandable order. Something that makes the movie work. As such it was a succes – or as close to succes as you can get, I suppose. It can never be perfect when you’re trying to cram 600+ pages of Larsson wildness and sub-plot entanglements into a little over 2 hours. But I think the movie got it pretty well.
No, I missed something more essential than that. I think I missed a feeling – a red thread or something – especially as regards the relationship between Micke and Sally. After all, a lot of the book is devoted to Mikael trying to get into contact with Lisbeth – at the same time trying to help her and trying to respect her personal limits. And I feel, of course, that I can identify with Mikael because however fucked up Lisbeth is – I do want her to succeed and have a good life and be cleared of all charges. And I also want Mikael and Lisbeth to have a working friendship – if nothing else.
But the movie seems to have forgotten that the slow approach, where Mikael is working his way into the mystery – and closer to actually meeting Lisbeth again – via all the frustrating short and blunt messages from Lis to the desktop of his hacked iBook – that all of this is a way for Stieg Larsson to make us WANT for the two to meet again!
(It’s a bit like an old-fashioned love-story, where the lovers are separated by circumstances beyond their control – except of course that Micke and Sally aren’t lovers. At least not anymore. )
And I missed more of these scenes – between Mikael and Lisbeth (even though they are at separate computers).
I know it’s hard when you gotta cram in all the other key scenes that is supposed to make the whole mystery about Alexander Zalachenko, Swedish woman trafficking and strange nerve-system diseases understandable, easy to follow and entertaining at the right spots.
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Butbutbut … dear film cutting crew: Mikael and Lisbeth’s awkward relationship is THE REAL THING that makes me want to care about this story!
It is through them that all the sordid sub-plots about abuse in the psychiatric system and female trafficking and whatnot comes to life, yes, – but ultimately it is THEIR relationship that makes it matter to me!
And couldn’t you just have shown us a little bit more of that?!
Because it’s not THAT important to me that Lisbeth kicks ass and takes names and gets shot and gets buried and clobbers her dad with an axe. That’s just spice.
If you thought that was what was important in the movie, it must’ve been because that’s what the lame commercial department told you. And probably why they designed that godawful and decidedly anti-Larsson-esque poster for the movie. (No, I’m not gonna show it here – you know which poster I’m talking about; the one with Lis standing in front of that burning car.)
Unlike some confused feminists, I believe I’m smart enough to ‘get’ that Stieg Larsson didn’t use tough women and lesbian sex and axe-murder attempts as the ‘real sell’ for a story that was ultimately crap.
I know that he put these things in the story because he wanted to spice it up and pay homage (e.g. to Quentin Tarantino) and show complexity. Yes, Lisbeth is a kick-ass girl but she’s also incredibly vulnerable and socially dysfunctional – who would, at the end of the day, want to be like her?!.
And I really feel that the real story Stieg wanted to tell was about Mikael and Lisbeth, and everything they symbolise. Lisbeth beating up two bikers or having sex with Miriam Wu on a cold floor that’s just … ‘story wrapping’. But it’s really not that important to Larsson. (If it was, wouldn’t there be lots more blood and p****-licking?!)
At least that’s how I feel about it.
It was a good movie, nice sex, nice boxing, nice axe-use … but it lacked a little heart.
Okay, enough ranting already. Dissenting views are welcome!
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Or … Go to another rant about the third movie, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest!
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That link
Flickan som lekte med elden- (The Girl Who Played With Fire) International Movie DataBase entry
