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The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest

Director: Daniel Alfredson -- Rated MA

Reviewed by Joshua Maule

04 Mar 2011

9:28am Friday, 4th March 2011

Lisbeth Slander (Noomi Rapace) has had a horrific time of it. And it shows. She has head injuries. She lies in a critical condition. Ever so slowly she regains fortitude.

As revealed in the first two instalments of the Millennium trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire), Salander has suffered immense wickedness. In response she has dished her own servings of crime and punishment. The evil surrounding her is very thick and very real. Never more so, perhaps, than in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.

Later in the movie, as Salander exchanges hospital gown for her famous Gothic/emo/punk outfit, she may look like someone from a subgroup – collectives often judged flippantly – but her reason for donning this fashion should give cause to rethink assumptions about why people look as they do.

Investigating her case is the journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), who is committed to transparency in the face of cover ups by those who should be trusted. He is working on an extended story about Salander, while she sits in court defending herself. His dedication to the incredibly long and detailed story – in the face of attacks and threats – makes him the film's main pillar of stability.

The third instalment of the now amazingly successful Millennium series, based on the posthumously published manuscripts by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson, delivers a big helping of intense violence. Its suggestion – that vigilantism may triumph in a world gone mad – has obviously struck a note with many.

Many critics have toiled over whether Larsson's books, and the film adaptations, are fascist, feminist or misogynist. The optimists have seen Lisbeth Salander as a feminine hero, getting her revenge on the men who have oppressed her (and make no mistake, men have acted worse than dogs toward her).

This interpretation seems likely. Larsson's first book was originally called The Men Who Hate Women. And details about the sexual abuse Salander has endured provide the emotionally charged backdrop for her bursts of violence in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.

However when all's said and done, her revenge on the men that deserve it, removes none of her scars and alleviates minimal inner turmoil. Instead, Salander is left in an ambiguous place.

What she needed was love. Not necessarily romantic. But certainly love. She finds allegiance and deep concern in Blomkvist, and her lawyer, but they don't seem to love her.

Perhaps Larsson's greatest mistake was to hold up self-sufficiency and revenge as heroes while neglecting positive love and trust. While he rightly rejects the Hollywood notion that every woman needs romance and sex – no matter how bad or dysfunctional – his conclusion doesn't satisfy. Surely for Salander to need help and compassion would not have been too weak, would it? I would have simply called it human.