IF YOUR only impression of the Swedish was of unfeasibly tall, polite and liberal-minded Vikings, who like to eat meatballs and jump into frozen lakes, author Stieg Larsson will make you think again.
His so-called Millennium trilogy bleakly depicts Sweden as a grim, seedy hotbed of sinister conspiracies and dark murderous secrets.
Last year’s celluloid adaptation of the first installment, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was a must-see masterpiece of suspense, so a lot was riding on the second film to not only match that level of nail-biting thrills but surpass it.
The Girl Who Played With Fire exceeds expectations, pulling out all the stops in terms of both nerve-shredding tension and plot twists, turns and somersaults.
More than a year has passed since investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and the enigmatic computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) helped reveal the sinister truth behind an unsolved disappearance.
After returning to Sweden from her Caribbean exile, Lisbeth is lying low in Stockholm, while Mikael is back at Millennium magazine intent on exposing a sex trafficking ring controlled by government officials.
When Lisbeth’s abusive guardian Bjurman is found murdered, along with two of Millennium’s newest researchers, all the evidence points to Lisbeth as the prime suspect.
Convinced of her innocence, Mikael attempts to uncover the truth, while Lisbeth goes on the run and stumbles upon secrets of her own past.
Admittedly, the plot is a little implausible at times — a muscle bound gangster who can’t feel pain is straight out of a Bond film, Lisbeth is practically superhuman and there are more convenient coincidences than in an episode of Murder She Wrote.
But director Daniel Alfredson expertly tackles Larsson’s rich, multi-layered story, delivering a film where no detail is superfluous and every scene is as unmissable as the last.
Intense and ridiculously enjoyable, this is a heart-stopping roller coaster ride which will simply take your breath away.
The Girl Who Played With Fire (15) is out on Friday.
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