7/10
second installment of "The Girl ..." trilogy
13 June 2013
I'm going with the Swedish films for this trilogy, which is also being made in the U.S. starring Rooney Mara. Haven't seen the one that's been released.

I'll be honest here. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was hard to watch in some sections. I thought it was good, but rape and violence aren't really my thing.

This trilogy was made for Swedish TV, so these films have been cut. Apparently "The Girl Who Played with Fire" has 60 minutes missing. Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) goes away for a year and then returns to Sweden. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is still editor of Millennium magazine. An investigative journalist has approached them about a tell-all article on human trafficking involving women from Eastern Europe and some major buyers, and the journalist is ready to name names. Blomkvist gives the okay for the story, but the journalist and his girlfriend, who was working on another aspect of the story, are both murdered. As well, Lisbeth's awful court-appointed guardian is found dead also. Lisbeth is suspected of all three murders and has to go on the run. She and Mikael both work on trying to find out who framed her, which has to be connected to the trafficking story.

The case winds up bringing some of Lisbeth's family secrets to the fore.

Very well done, less gritty than the first, with a wonderful performance again by Rapace. It didn't have the hard edge to it that the first film had, possibly because of a change in director. However, well worth seeing.
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