The Girl Who Played with Fire

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Got to see this second installment in the Stieg Larsson series yesterday, and it was just as great as first movie. The Mikael Blomqvist character (played by Michael Nyquist) was his same, inexplicably attractive self:

And Noomi Rapace was amazing as Lisbeth Salander. If I had one criticism about her casting in the first movie, it was that she looked a little older and bigger than Lisbeth was supposed to be (Lisbeth is 27 but supposed to look about 14 and be really tiny). They rectified this in this second movie, though. Noomi looked younger and smaller:

There was even a transformation within the confines of this movie. As you learn more about Lisbeth's tragic past, you see her less as a violent head case and more as a kid surviving great odds; and the filmmakers make her look more and more kid-like as her past is revealed---she loses first the heavy eyeliner, then the aggressive hair, and her clothes become plainer and younger.

The story steamed along too. I liked how the villains were often huge and muscle-bound but not nimble. The good guys were physically weaker but flexible and crafty. You feel that integrity, determination, and smarts can beat out brute force in the end.

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