Film Review: THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS’ NEST [Luftslottet som sprängdes] (2009)

Director: Daniel Alfredson
Running time: 178 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Drama/Crime
UK Release date: 26^th November 2010

Watched on DVD Saturday 29^th October 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium Trilogy’ comes to a conclusion with this film. All the threads from the previous two films are drawn together as Lisbeth Salander is put on trial for the attempted murder of Alexander Zalachenko. But there is more intrigue lurking under the surface and it’s up to Mikael Blomkvist to root it out. I quite enjoyed this conclusion to the trilogy, plenty of old scores are settled, but more of that after this brief summary.

Lisbeth Salander is about to go to trial but there are shady characters working in the shadows trying to prevent that. These are old men, men who have been involved in her case for many years, men who have a vested interest in keeping her under wraps. When it becomes apparent that moves are afoot to silence Lisbeth, Mikael Blomkvist and his team at the Millennium magazine are alerted. Blomkvist had already decided to do an entire issue focusing on Lisbeth’s story and, to this end, he has managed to get a mobile phone smuggled to her in hospital. She uses this to write her own story, and also to get help to find out just who is behind the moves to silence her. There is much more to tell, but I’ll leave it here or the Spoiler Police will be fabricating evidence against me (again).

This was, again, a very well made film that brings about a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Although she doesn’t feature very much in the first part, I thought Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, again, stole the show. Michael Nyqvist, of course, did an excellent job too as Mikael Blomkvist. Also worthy of note were; Lena Endre as Erika Berger, Annika Hallin as Annika Giannini (Lisbeth’s lawyer), Jacob Ericksson as Christer Malm, Sofia Ledarp as Malin Erikson and Anders Ahlbom as Dr. Peter Teleborian.

Not as good as part one but better than part two, I still found this quite heavy going. At times it was almost like watching a Swedish version of ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. And that’s hard enough to follow in English! Even so, the courtroom scenes were excellent, with Lisbeth turning up with excellent Mohican hair and dressed all in black. All this added to the character and gave credence to what she was about to say. On the down side, it did lack a little edge; you never truly felt any of the main characters were really in any peril. But I digress, its well worth persisting with as the payoff at the end is well worth the wait… Recommended.

My Score: 7.3/10

IMDb Score: 7.0/10 (based on 13,973 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1343097/

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52/100 (based on 123 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_girl_who_kicked_the_hornets_nest/

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
None available…

LINKS:
Official Site: http://millenniumfilmtrilogy.com/
Trailer: