"The Girl Who Played With Fire"

Okay, I know I am about the last person in the free world to read the Stieg Larsson "The Girl Who..." novels, and, at that, I am only two thirds of the way through the trilogy.

I finished the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, last week. It was a long book - over 700 pages in my edition - but the story of Lisbeth Salander is a most compelling one. Very complex, lots of characters, but surprisingly easy to follow despite complex, to American eyes and ears, Swedish names. I have the third book, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, in hand, but will wait a few weeks before picking it up to finish the Salander Saga.

Anyway, yesterday I picked up a copy of the movie of "The Girl Who Played With Fire." Yes, it is in Swedish and there are subtitles, but I wouldn't let that stop you from getting the movie. Also, the DVD from Redbox did have an option where you could watch a version that is dubbed in English. I chose the subtitles. The lip movement out of sync with the dialog would have been more distracting to me than the subtitles were, but that's just me. Anyway, like the Dragon Tattoo movie, this was very true to the book.

The best part of these movies, though, is the performance of Swedish actress Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth. She really nails the character. In fact, after seeing the Dragon Tattoo movie before I read Played with Fire, I found myself picturing Rapace-as-Salander as I read the book. I will look forward to renting the Hornet's Nest movie as soon as I finish the book. American actress Rooney Mara will have a lot to live up to in the Hollywood versions of these stories.

In summary, if you loved the books, rent the movies. You really need to see Noomi Rapace in the title role. Don't let the sub-titles scare you off.