THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
When former Swedish author and journalist Steig Larsson suddenly died of a heart attack at age 50 in November 2004, it would have been hard to predict just how strongly he would be regarded around the world in a posthumous sense.
However, he has now become a household name in the literary world thanks to his award-winning Millennium trilogy, which was published between the years of 2005-2007. The first two books in the series, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire, were made into two extremely successful Swedish-language films and the former is currently being made into an English-language effort directed by David Fincher (who is currently wowing audiences with The Social Network) and starring Daniel Craig.
Before that is released though, we have the final part of the trilogy, which shows young heroin Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) being kept under police custody in hospital, awaiting a charge of attempted murder.
All the while, her former partner Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nqvist) is building her defence for the next issue of his Millennium magazine. As has now become the norm for these films, there plenty of twists and turns, and no shortage of possible conspiracies, along the way as Salander eventually finds her way to the courtroom to face her impending charges.
Having seen Niels Arden Oplev kick-off the series in mesmerizing fashion, Daniel Alfredson took over directing duties for The Girl Who Played With Fire and, though it was still rather compelling, it clearly did pale in comparison with The Dragon Tattoo.
Alfredson has clearly settled into the role for The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest though, as that same urgency and attention to detail that was so evident in the first film is on evidence here as well.
Rapace (currently attached to appear in Sherlock Holmes 2) is once again fantastic, making it very hard to spot if Salander is actually brain-damaged or just deliberately being cagey, while Anders Ahlbom does an excellent line in being wonderfully loathsome as slippery psychiatrist Dr. Peter Teleborian.
Nqvist’s role should not go unnoticed however, as he represents the on-screen alter ego of Larsson and, as this is a set of stories that was incredibly personal to him, Nqvist certainly does the late author justice.
Though it can seem overly absurd at times, and it doesn’t quite capture all the gusto of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Hornet’s Nest is still a worthy bookend to the series, and it leaves Fincher’s attempt at the original novel with quite a bit to live up to.