The film opens up with a few shots of Anna Norberg's face then moves up to her boyfriend shooting up heroin in an alley. When she tells him she has money to go to Copenhagen to become an actress, he turns nasty when she won't give him the money for more heroin and then proceeds to rape her. A baby cries and someone complains about it, revealing that the two young people are actors auditioning for a movie. The judges then tell Anna that they will go for someone else for the part.
What follows is a harrowing descent into a nightmare that ends in tragic consequences. Anna's baby, Daisy, cries non stop (several times, the baby stares at Anna when she isn't crying, probably longing for a love that she will never get) and Anna repeatedly chastises her, sometimes wishing she were never born, other times displaying loving affection for her, and mostly complaining about her constant crying. Time after time, Anna auditions for parts to support her baby, all of them reflecting her possible life story, and she is rejected, either because of the baby, her inability to remember lines, or that she simply isn't right for the part. This leads to an unforgivable act, long suspected that it would happen. After making a cameo in a film which portrays the horrifying crime she committed, she then turns to prostitution and works in the porn industry.
It's an intense, depressing and heart-wrenching piece of filming that's not easy to watch. However, it's definitely worth it to see the brilliant determination and commitment that Noomi Rapace gives to her performance as Anna. I believe it's precisely that kind of fearlessness that won her the role of Lisbeth Salander in the Millennium film series. She's too strong an actress to be kept in the dark and I'm glad she's managed break into Hollywood.
What follows is a harrowing descent into a nightmare that ends in tragic consequences. Anna's baby, Daisy, cries non stop (several times, the baby stares at Anna when she isn't crying, probably longing for a love that she will never get) and Anna repeatedly chastises her, sometimes wishing she were never born, other times displaying loving affection for her, and mostly complaining about her constant crying. Time after time, Anna auditions for parts to support her baby, all of them reflecting her possible life story, and she is rejected, either because of the baby, her inability to remember lines, or that she simply isn't right for the part. This leads to an unforgivable act, long suspected that it would happen. After making a cameo in a film which portrays the horrifying crime she committed, she then turns to prostitution and works in the porn industry.
It's an intense, depressing and heart-wrenching piece of filming that's not easy to watch. However, it's definitely worth it to see the brilliant determination and commitment that Noomi Rapace gives to her performance as Anna. I believe it's precisely that kind of fearlessness that won her the role of Lisbeth Salander in the Millennium film series. She's too strong an actress to be kept in the dark and I'm glad she's managed break into Hollywood.