The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

Original Title

Luftslottet som sprängdes

Genre

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Director

Daniel Alfredson

Country

Sweden

Cast

Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Lena Endre, Annika Hallin, Sofia Ledarp, Jacob Ericksson, Georgi Staykov, Aksel Morisse, Niklas Hjulström, Micke Spreitz, Anders Ahlbom, Hans Alfredson, Lennart Hjulström, Carl-Åke Eriksson, Peter Oscarsson, Michalis Koutsogiannakis, Mirja Turestedt, Johan Kylén. Tehilla Blad

Storyline

After taking a bullet to the head, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is under close supervision in a hospital and is set to face trial for attempting to murder his father (Georgi Staykov).

Opinion

The good, the bad and the ugly. Those are the words that come to my mind when I think about the trilogy this film closed. A trilogy that started off beautifully with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", but that ended awfully with "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", not only the weakest of the three, but a film that doesn't even work as a crime thriller.

This time around Stieg Larsson's novel - my favourite of the trilogy - has been tore apart. I don't know what the filmmakers were thinking, but clearly they weren't thinking straight. This film is indeed a complete mess.

Actually, I should be blaming Ulf Rydberg for writing a terrible screenplay that only "focuses" on the main storyline, leaving out events and details essential to understand the story. There was an interesting subplot regarding death threats sent to one of Blomkvist's coworker that is just left to die. And the fight between Lisbeth and Niedermann was basically a cat and mouse game.

But that's not all. The reason why this was my favourite book is the final part, a gripping legal thriller. In the film there is no such a thing, and the trial scenes are too rushed and boring. The highly engaging, interesting and passionate debate between Teleborian and Annika Giannini is so pathetic.

The characters weren't treated any better. There isn't much characterization, and some characters, especially Monica Figuerola, are nothing. And because of it, the acting is awful. Some members of the cast, like Noomi Rapace, still manage to do a decent job, but most of them give poor performances because they have nothing to work with.