The Girl who Played with Fire - Flickan som lekte med elden

Aah - finally I get the chance to unfold some of the observations on the cinematic version of Stieg Larsson's story "Flickan som lekte med elden". I read the book quite recently only, and I can see why it is so huge at the moment. Not to mention the movie versions, Larsson's trilogy is being translated to a plethora of languages. Anyway, the movie was a pleasant surprise. This is the middle part of a trilogy, continuation to Män som hatar kvinnor (Men who hate women).

First of all, casting. Casting is always the key when one is making a cinematic version of a book. Everybody who has read the book has his or her own mental pictures on how the characters look, what kind of interior is found in a Stockholm apt on Fiskaregatan etc. I hardly can not mention at this stage, that I will be moving to that city quite soon. Well, anyway, casting rocks in this movie. The most dazzling example of this is the actress Noomi Rapace who does an excellent job portraying Liz Salander to our retinas. Undoubtedly, she will be projected into fame of sorts in the Nordic countries and perhaps elsewhere in Europe as well. Other roles are filled well also. No problems there.

How about the story? Stieg Larsson, that old communinist, does a lovely job at painting the red wine guzzling, Peroni (Nastro Azzurro!)-swilling ambiance in an independent, left-leaning small magazine called Millenium, in which the jornalist character Blomkvist works. Btw, Stieg himself worked for a magazine called Expo. Now how do the people in Expo compare their own workplace to that of Millenium's? Probably quite close, is my guess :)

In this episode, Liz Zalander :) gets to know a bit more of her ancestry, and of course, on the bad guy section we have a bunch of guys who hate women. Also, in pure Stieg-style, a larger, societal theme (how lefty is that?!) of human trafficing and organized prostitution underlies the story.

All in all, the movie is, as is the book, a moving experience with a serious societal message. What is regrettable, is that Stieg Larsson died recently, unable to see his trilogy's success. I am, however, thankful for this experience.