The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009) - The Movie

Down here in Orlando, we are slightly deprived of culture, particularly in the indie movie category. (I've probably moaned about this before, so pardon my continued whining. My only escape is Netflix.) We have one theater that shows something other than blockbusters, and it is a small, limited-seating, one-screen deal. They generally show one movie a week, so it can take ages and some finger-crossing to get to see the lesser known movies of our choice.

With all that in mind, do I really need to tell you how loud I screamed when my friend Marianne called me and informed me that "The Girl Who Played With Fire" was now showing? This movie just released in the US recently, and I was shocked at how quickly our theater snatched it up. Apparently, the shows have been sold out, which makes my heart happy (except when I have to stand in line to fight for a seat). Right after this phone call, I received an e-mail from a local blogger, Zibilee (Heather) at Raging Bibliomania, giving me the same great news. I invited her to come along. So two highlights in one...more Lisbeth, and getting to meet my second-ever blogger in real life!

I'm not going to go through the plot of the second installment of the Millennium series here. What I will tell you is that the story stayed generally true to the book, but there were massive amounts of details left out. I recognize this is the way it must be, when the book is over 600 pages long. I was happy to see they didn't change small but critical details like they did in the first film.


In this movie, we find Lisbeth to be a tad bit more feminine (only a tad!) with longer hair and less piercings. I never noticed this until Heather mentioned it, but she says very few words in the film - it is all about her actions and facial expressions. We aren't privy to her internal thoughts, which is always the benefit of the printed word. Casting on the new characters (Zala and Neiderman specifically) were excellent, and really exactly what you would expect. I'm still finding the character of Erika to be a little creepy and worn-out looking.



Similar to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, this is not a flick for the faint of heart. It re-lives some of the violence from the first movie (via the infamous DVD), plus adds some new violence with guns and an ax for good measure, and includes a lesbian sex scene. In other words, don't take the kids!




I will leave you with a picture of Heather and I, with our glasses in hand, waiting in our queue to get into the movie. She was so sweet...she brought me books and bookmarks! It was so nice to get to know her a little better. What I find amazing is how two people, who have never met before, can instantaneously jump into a conversation like they've known each other for years. The world is so small in that way, and is what makes the book blogging community so special. I'm hoping that we can get together again soon.