Lisbeth Salander is as perfectly modern and complex a literary character I can think of. She’s a computer hacking, bisexual feminist with a photographic memory. I enjoy and sometimes love the Swedish filming of the first 3 novels, as well as David Fincher’s American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (one of the all time great titles). Spider’s Web is a weaker entry into the series, but it’s still pretty fun and perfectly enjoyable for escapist movie watching.
Claire Foy (after Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara) don’s the dragon tattoo in Spider’s Web. Lisbeth here is freelancing, taking a very powerful tracking program from the NSA thanks to insider Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant). This program, however, has drawn attention from many powerful people, including Ed Needham (Lakeith Stanfield) from the NSA, who wants the program back, and a mysterious man named Jan Holster (Claes Bang) who affiliates with a Russian crime syndicate. Meanwhile, Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), who built his magazine on the back of Lisbeth, starts unblocking his writer’s mind once she shows up on his radar, and it’s possible Jan Holster has a female leader (Sylvia Hoeks) who may or may not have long ties to Lisbeth as well. Wow, this woman who prefers solitude sure knows a lot of people!
What’s interesting about The Girl in the Spider’s Web is instead of a director that can do thrillers (like David Fincher) with horror elements, Spider’s Web opts for a horror director going for thriller elements. What does that mean? Well, Spider’s Web is going for style and imagery to establish atmosphere first, then dispensing the plot secondarily. For anyone who know’s Lisbeth’s backstory, there is a history of horrific sexual exploitation by men, and Fede Alvarez (the director) mines scenarios like this for all the horror they elicit. Visually, there are some really cool and sometimes horrific images and shots. Whoever thought of putting Lisbeth and a character in red against a pure white backdrop, it pops for sure. I certainly no longer wonder what a ripped off nose looks like on a face, yeesh. And I don’t think I’ve seen a vacuum used as weapon quite like the third act deploys one here. Alvarez wants to make the world Lisbeth is fighting against seem relentlessly scary, and sometimes he gets those momentary gasp moments and creepy atmosphere he wants, empty modern apartments and creepy old houses aiding in the process.
However, Alvarez’s attempts to craft a thriller are left to a host of writers, including himself. It could be too many adapters or perhaps inadequate source material, but Spider’s Web should be more intricate or exciting than it is with such a potentially strong protagonist. The one double cross in the movie is by the one character who would obviously have stakes in the game (read: it’s pretty easy to see coming). And the heist and retrieval of certain characters only raised my eyebrow in intrigue a couple times. Equally important is that arguably the only good relationship between two characters is the one between Lisbeth and Balder’s son (Christopher Convery): not good for jump starting a possible new series of films. The reason the Blomkvist/Salander relationship is so complex and interesting is Mikael threatens Lisbeth’s understandable distrust of men. In Spider’s Web, there’s barely 2 lines between them, giving us too little too late. The movie prefers to show us Lisbeth on her own, doing her thing and keeping everyone at arm’s length. There is a large attempt to make Lisbeth an avenging angel here: a mental AND physical badass. However, Spider’s Web sacrifices Lisbeth’s character (her ingenuity) for some badass fights too often. And finally, when Lisbeth let’s her guard down, it is too characters introduced too late for us to care.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web will probably end up forgettable entertainment for you. If you like a motorcycle riding across a frozen lake (that WAS pretty cool), what goes on in a hook up club or in the hacker culture, then you’ll have a blast watching The Girl in the Spider’s Web. If you expected Claire Foy in a crown being very British, keep pushing for another season of The Crown…
PS. I’m gonna put the trailer down here. Be forewarned, it bascially tells the plot of the whole movie, so only watch this if you have kids and therefore zero time to see this film…