The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (2009)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (2009)

6/10

Starring

Michael Nyqvist

Noomi Rapace

Directed by Daniel Alfredson

I liked the way the first original trilogy written by the late author Stieg Larsson ends. It’s been a long ride witnessing the weight that the lead character, Lisbeth, carried for so many years. It felt good to see it end. This last movie in the franchise is more of a roundup of all the things that happened in the first two movies/books. The movie is an adaptation of the last book in the Millennium series, written by Larsson, with the same name as this movie.

For many of us who have been tied to the American way of movie-making, where the hero of such films will be an action junkie with the most unbelievable luck to get away from repercussions, this series does not play at that level. By the way, the second movie ends with our hero alive but brutally injured (well, she was lucky to have survived), and we see the repercussions of the injury. In American films, she would be out on the street trying to stop the bad guys. Here, she’s in bed, and others are doing the running around while she helps from her phone. These three crime thriller films have more realistic tones than you would expect from an American movie.

This is a nice movie and a good conclusion to the Swedish trilogy. As in the second film, the cast reprises their roles.

The movie starts where The Girl Who Played with Fire stops, with both Zala and Lisbeth in the hospital, and Lisbeth undergoing major surgery to remove the bullets in her. Now that Zala is in the hospital and based on the manhunt for Lisbeth in The Girl Who Played with Fire, the whole ordeal is in the news. The men of the secret service who helped Zala defect and become a Swedish citizen have gathered together and must stop both from talking.

The plan to kill both of them did not go well at all, and Lisbeth was still alive. Based on what has happened, she is facing a count of attempted murder on Zala.

Plans were made to keep her safe in the hospital as attempts on her life and psychological well-being are being undertaken, but nobody knows by whom. Even Mikael and his team are facing such challenges in their lives and work. They were bugged and followed everywhere. It was obvious that the men responsible for Zala wanted to tie up loose ends. To do so, they are pulling all their government muscle to make sure they are not implicated in the mess.

How everything eventually turns out is for you to watch and see.

There’s more of everyone in this movie and less of Lisbeth, which did not mar the movie for me. I still found it interesting. The movie was released to mixed reviews, and to me, it’s because many are not used to the way the movie took on the role of the lead and made her susceptible to injury and her challenges realistic.