The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Hornet’s Nest picks up right where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off, with punk hacker genius Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) on the brink of death from a bullet in her skull, her Russian defector father (Staykov) also wounded, and intrepid business reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) standing around looking dyspeptic and wondering why he had so little to do in the second chapter. And then we spend two hours largely watching villains and heroes hold meetings, with occasional cutting to menacing giant Ronald (Spreitz) kidnapping and killing his way toward Salander to add tension. That’s not to say there isn’t much plot; there’s a surfeit, with a secret government conspiracy, an equally secret investigative team and a murder trial. The methodical detailing of strategy meetings seems meant to distract us from the fundamental absurdity of it all.

Alfredson chugs along through the material at a steady pace that often feels as if he’s building to the next commercial break. Rapace once again embodies Salander, though she has her work cut out for her, since mostly she’s stuck texting, regaining her strength, and shaking up the staid Swedish courtroom with her awesome Mohawk and piercings.

The trilogy slides from iffy plotting in Dragon Tattoo (the final credulity-straining twist) to absurdity in Played with Fire (a blond giant insensitive to pain), with Hornet’s Nest trying to restore order by putting Blomkvist front and center as he bravely dedicates an entire issue of his magazine to defending Salander and exposing the way institutions and individuals have done her wrong. The film version falls into the same uneasy balance of Da Vinci Code–level conspiracy stuff and journo-procedural. It’s engaging enough, until you realize you’re exhausted and there’s still 20 minutes of movie left.

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