The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

What a wild conclusion to a wonderful trilogy! Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy was brought to the big screen by Niels Arden Oplev with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and seamlessly picked up by Daniel Alfredson for the final two films. I haven't read the books yet, but after watching all three of these films this trilogy is the next series on my must-read list.

The story on screen comes out as a web of intricate lies, deceit, and mystery as I'm sure the the books do and as usual probably better than the movies. Each film became darker than the previous one and the third installment was no different. Picking up right where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off we find a hospitalized Lisbeth Salander played again spectacularly by Noomi Rapace.

The acting throughout is yet again a pleasure to watch. The actors really bring their characters to life, especially Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomkvist. The acting of Anders Ahlbom as Peter Teleborian was incredible. He made a character come to life as the sleaze ball that he really was. One character that I really liked was Lisbeth's doctor Anders Jonasson only because of how he helps her. Though I didn't really understand why he was so trusting and helpful to her or why she was so trusting of him. Maybe there is more detail in the book.

Since I haven't read the books I can't say much about the translation from book to film, but from what I know about screenwriting I thought it was decent. The one thing that confused me was how the courts work in Sweden. If the way it was portrayed in the film is how it really is court would be a very exciting place. With new evidence being found and added during a trial without the knowledge of the opposing side really showing a lawyers true worth. While watching the court scenes I couldn't help but feel elated as I watched the full story unfold and watch as pieces from the first two films come together to complete the excellent story.

Overall this final installment of the Millennium trilogy (originally supposed to be a ten book series) rounded out a solid set of films quite well. Though some things didn't make sense (like the courtroom scene) it all worked well. I am curiously waiting to see how the American adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo turns out later this year and if it will hold up the standard set by the Swedes in 2009.

7/10