"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.

Noomi Rapace

In my earlier post on "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," you may have picked up on the fact that I was intrigued with the Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander in the movie. I ask you, how can you NOT be intrigued by someone named "Noomi."

The picture to the left is of the lovely Ms. Rapace. The picture above shows Noomi in character in the movie, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

Book and Movie: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

If you have been to a bookstore, or a Target or Costco, or anywhere that mass markest paperbacks are sold, you have no doubt been exposed to the ubiquitous green and yellow cover that you see to the left here. Well, based upon the recommendation of some people's whose opinions I trust, I recently became, apparently, one of the last people to read Stieg Larsson's thriller, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

The book is about a reporter who is hired by a wealthy Swedish industrialist to look into the mystery of the disappearance of his niece 40 years ago. He is assisted by a strange young woman, Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed "girl" of the title. It is a lengthy, but quite compelling read. I will now no doubt have to read the next two novels of the Salander trilogy.

I also hit up the Redbox to get the Swedish version of the movie, and it is a faithful version of the book and worth watching as well. Be forewarned, however, that it is a Swedish made movie, so be prepared to read the subtitles. Either that or take a crash course in Swedish. Or, you can wait until 2011 when an American version of the movie will be made. The actress who played Lisbeth is a Swedish babe with the exotic name of Noomi Rapace. She was quite good, and the American actress who will play her, Rooney Mara (for all you sports fans out there, she is the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney and Tim Mara) will have a lot to live up to in playing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.