The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest – 3*
Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy finally comes to a cinematic end, and the only thing worth knowing is whether Daniel Alfredson’s finale, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest, does justice to the spellbinding novel in tying up the loose ends. It does, to a certain extent, providing a relatively engaging and much-needed justice server at the end, but mostly due to the powerhouse talent of Noomi Rapace as the ultimate survivor, Lisbeth Salander.
Screenwriter Ulf Ryberg doesn’t have an easy task as there is so much going on in the book that fitting it into 147 minutes was always going to be challenging. That said the film does take time to pick up pace, and this could be a factor of the amount of information that needs translating off the page. Ryberg appears to have got a little out of his depth in doing this, adding subplot after subplot that often doesn’t lead to anything substantial, in the vague hope that he is capturing the many elements of the brilliant book.
The story picks up where our fallen heroine Salander was found, severely wounded by a gunshot to the head, after tracking down her evil father and discovering a Neanderthal half-brother who is a brute of a killer machine who feels no pain and could give any Bond villain a run for his money. As ever, her guardian angel and ex-lover, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, played by the poker-faced Michael Nyqvist, comes to the rescue in time. He then makes it his personal mission to reveal the real facts and clear Salander’s name in an explosive expose in his Millennium magazine. This film actually provides Nyqvist with the opportunity to get a little more daring, self-absorbed and crazed as character Blomkvist, but he still rests within the realms of that certain Swedish restraint, even though it places the newshound in an exciting restaurant shootout. Still, Nyqvist does do reliable, solid and protective rather well, enough for the ladies to continue swooning at his untraditional leading-man sex appeal.
One of the main reasons for Hornets’ Nest’s tardy start is the lack of Salander action. Admittedly, this is a little tricky as she is bedridden in hospital, only able to communicate to the outside world via a mobile hidden in her chocolate box. Our heroine’s current state hardly adds any excitement to the proceedings, and it’s up to the often dull and egotistical Blomkvist to keep our interest through wordy, TV-cop-show-like puzzles and reveals with the help of his editorial team. That said this is where one such subplot begins to develop, after his team starts resenting his story obsession over their safety, and there’s a mini mutiny on Blomkvist’s hands, but this fizzles out before it even starts.
Sadly, the film’s main selling point, Salander, doesn’t come into action until quite some time into the story, and as much as we’re rooting for her, which keeps our interest in the interim on the whole, there are points where it wanes, particularly the whole Dr Teleborian focus in trying to mount electronic evidence against him and the evil authorities he’s in league with. It’s only at the end when Salander comes to trial and faces her nemesis, cutting him down to size in the ultimate show of girl power (helped by Blomkvist’s cutthroat lawyer sister representing her), that things get truly thrilling. But this ending is merely what we’d come to expect from Rapace who finally gets her voice.
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest is a necessary ending to a marvellous and meaty thriller that must give full credit for its best points to its lead, Noomi Rapace. Nyqvist as Blomkvist began life in the first film as an intriguing character, but has turned into a predictable, almost stereotypical one in the latter, even though there was scope to venture into some of his torment and daredevil spirit in getting the scoop out. Nevertheless, the subject matter is immense, and fans will appreciate how the crux of the tale has been sufficiently dealt with, even though it feels like a desperate attempt at combining a TV mini series into over two hours of cinema experience. It will be interesting to see how US director David Fincher and team treat the story, even though Rapace will be a tough act to follow, but Daniel Craig might just inject more life into Blomkvist.
3/5 stars
By L G-K
