Appetizer...

I have a few things to tell you about.  But it has to wait.  I just watched a movie that was two hours long and I'm beat. 

The Girl Who Played with Fire:
This is the sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I watched that movie about a month ago and LOVED it.  I haven't read the books that these movies are based on.  I'm having trouble reading lately.  Which is all weird because I love reading.  I have been known to take a total break from life and read a book cover to cover in two days while sprawled out on the couch as my family swarmed around me and wondered when I might feed them something. 

When it comes to books that are turned into movies, I'm a fan of seeing the movies before reading the book.  If I have the choice.  Like, with Harry Potter, I didn't get the choice because it took Hollywood some time to glean the fact that those were going to be a smash hit and lucrative bonanza of films, theme park, candy, costumes and what-not.  But books give me very vivid ideas of how the story plays out.  It's one person (unless they have hit the apex of their career and have to start writing with a partner because they have run out of fresh ideas... God love ya James Patterson.  You were the bomb back in the day... He got me so invested in a character in one of his books that when the character died, I threw the book across the room) who comes up with a story and characters and lovingly takes the time to build that with words just to share with you.  It's a thing of beauty, really.  When it becomes a movie, I understand that the writer becomes the lowest person on the totem pole in conveying that story.  A studio buys the rights which means that they can do whatever they want with it.  The movie The TV Set is such an awesome example of how this happens.  When a book becomes a movie, there are so many more people telling the story that often the story gets lost.  There's a casting agent who finds the actor - Tom Cruise as Lestat anyone?   There's a cinematographer - which is different than a camera man who just carries out the wishes of a cinematographer.  He can't be bothered to hold the camera during filming.  There's a script writer, which for some reason is never the author of the original story.  There's the producer who has a say but I can't really tell what the hello kitty their job really is.  And there's the director.  It's noise at that point.  It loses the intimacy.  And I don't say this lightly because I love movies almost as much as I love books.  Not in a I could win trivial pursuit silver screen edition kind of way because I can't because I don't watch old movies.  I can't relate to them or the troubles those people faced.  For real.  Rebel Without a Cause is one of the worst movies I have ever seen AND I thought that James Dean gave an awful performance.  What can I say?  I'm controversial.  So.  My preference is to see if the movie did the book justice and then read what the author wished they had done.  Sometimes the author is no longer alive and probably don't care too much.  But I do.  So there.  Back to this particular movie.  I think Noomi Rapace is a marvel.  Again, I haven't read the books (yet) but she gives such a nuanced and yet highly controlled performance that I can't imagine that it's not an amazing fit for how Stieg Larsson wrote her.  Of course, I could be completely off base.  But I love watching her as Lisbeth. 

I didn't think that this movie was as powerful as the first.  And I found it disappointing that there was all this hullabaloo over trafficking that never got realized.  It's like that entire part of the storyline was just got forgotten and they changed direction into what happened with her father.  And, since this was filmed in 2009 when trafficking is a very current topic, I think that was irresponsible and sloppy.  I also felt slighted for not being given an explanation as to why Lisbeth stopped talking to Mikael for over a year.  What is that about?  Perhaps the final film in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest will resolve some of these issues.  But I've never been a fan of cliffhangers.  It's totally contrary to my instant gratification obsession. 

I'm going to rate The Girl Who Played with Fire 7 out of 10 Jenny's jewels.  It was worth my 2 hours.  But it could use some improvement. 

So could I, which is why I have to go to sleep now.