The Girl Who Played with Fire

AroView: Feature film version of the second part of Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium Trilogy’ sees the return of touch-as-nails Lisbeth Salander, who must clear her name of murder charges with the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

While adequate as pulp entertainment, both the context and subtexts of the novel are lost in adaptation as it is forced to sacrifice detail, and it misses the high intrigue of the historical crime that drove the narrative of the first film. What we settle for instead is a patchwork of violent confrontations with protagonists we know will live to see in (more satisfying) Part III.