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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest covers such topics as espionage, murder, misogyny, medical marvels, shameless product placement and of course coffee and sandwiches (apparently the Swedish staple diet, I thought it was meatballs). Presumably in order to escape the criticism which has hounded many book-to-film adaptations, Larsson’s book has been fairly precisely reproduced in the film, with the exception of a couple of completely excusable omissions.
The main points of the book, such as masculine corruption by and greed for power as well as female solidarity with its strong female characters are present in force. Like the book, though, the film does ramble a little and is slow, although this was not unpleasant and did in fact make the few moments of frantic action more attention-grabbing than they otherwise could have been.
The best bit of the film for me was the opening sequence. Here we see jumbled shots of Gothenburg from the helicopter which is rushing Lisbeth to hospital, having survived being shot in the head and buried alive(!). There are flashbacks, gory bits and beautiful landscape shots one after the other which are immediately attention-grabbing and pleasing to the eye, and ease us back into the complex plot. Beyond this scene though, the film loses a little of its urgency, even when Lisbeth is fighting for her life. The colours are cold; greys, pale blues and browns which create a remote and melancholy tone and keep the audience at arm’s length. The acting, although perfectly suitable, is efficient and the characters do not invite sympathy. The exception to this is Noomi Rapace’s Salander whose sharp, meticulous face is very engaging and who delivers as close a representation of the Lisbeth of my mind’s eye as could be expected. I found Michael Nyqvist’s Blomkvist to be a complete pain.
On the one hand, the film was difficult to engage with while on the other it was beautiful and well thought-out. As such, it reflected Lisbeth’s character perfectly. In all, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a precise, well executed film which I enjoyed very much. I also got a view of Sweden itself - a bit cold, very beautiful, organised to a T and a mix of outdoorsy-practical and meticulously neat. As well as completely obsessed with Ikea.
See The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest at City Screen
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