The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) - 9 stars out of 10

The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) - 9 stars out of 10

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" is an incredible elaboration on the film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." In this sequel, we begin to understand many of Lisbeth's motivations and realize the misconceptions that we formed about her in the first film. The revelation of Lisbeth's back-story does not ruin the original (as stories in ...sequels so often do) since this entire series was conceptualized at once; in fact, the screenwriters do a genius job of developing our opinions in the first film and then revealing how misguided those opinions were as the second story unfolds. Following the precident set by the first film in the series, "The Girl Who Played with Fire" contains several incredible twists that enhance that constantly alter our perspectives as the seemingly evil Lisbeth becomes a heroine. Noomi Rapace surpasses her acting in the first film as this installment shifts the focus from Nyqvist’s character to her. This is another example of how great acting and great writing are an equation for success. I am typically disappointed by sequels but this film is anything but a letdown.