| The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest | |
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Swedish release poster |
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| Directed by | Daniel Alfredson |
| Produced by | Soren Staermose Jon Mankell |
| Screenplay by | Ulf Rydberg Jonas Frykberg |
| Based on | The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson |
| Starring | Noomi Rapace Michael Nyqvist |
| Music by | Jacob Groth |
| Cinematography | Peter Mokrosinski |
| Editing by | Mattias Morheden |
| Distributed by | Zodiak Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 27 November 2009 |
| Running time | 148 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Budget | 32 million |
| Box office | $43,498,108[1] |
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes, in English literally The Castle Of Air that was Blown up[2]) is a 2009 Swedish thriller film directed by Daniel Alfredson. It is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the third and final entry in his "Millennium series". The movie is also the last film for veteran actor Per Oscarsson, who died in a house fire on 31 December 2010.
Lisbeth Salander is hospitalized after the meeting with her father, and later put on trial. Mikael Blomkvist takes on the task of proving she is innocent as he continues to uncover the reasons why Lisbeth has been treated so harshly by the Swedish authorities.
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The film begins where the previous entry, The Girl Who Played with Fire, left off. Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is airlifted to a hospital in Gothenburg. Surgeons remove bullets from her shoulder, hip and head, bullets fired by her father, Alexander Zalachenko (Zala). She is cared for by Dr. Jonasson (Aksel Morisse), who prevents anyone except her lawyer from visiting.
At the same time Evert Gullberg (Hans Alfredson) and Fredrik Clinton (Lennart Hjulström), old colleagues from the "Section," a group within the Swedish Security Service, reconnect and decide that they must silence Zalachenko and Lisbeth to preserve cold war secrets. Zalachenko (Georgi Staykov) is still alive, in a hospital room down the hall from Lisbeth.
Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) asks his sister, Annika (Annika Hallin), to be Lisbeth's lawyer in her up-coming murder trial. Gullberg arrives at the hospital at the same time as Annika, proceeds to Zalachenko's room, and shoots him dead. Annika saves Lisbeth by barricading the door to Lisbeth's room, preventing Gullberg from killing her too. Gullberg then shoots himself. Clinton visits psychiatrist Dr. Peter Teleborian (Anders Ahlbom), and explains his plan to silence Lisbeth by having her committed to St. Stephen's mental hospital again. Teleborian tries to meet with Lisbeth to conduct a psychological evaluation but is prevented by Dr. Jonasson.
Mikael Blomkvist persuades Dr. Jonasson to sneak an internet phone into Lisbeth's room, whereupon Lisbeth immediately contacts her information source, Plague, to see if he can find something on Teleborian, and then tells Mikael that Annika has permission to use a video of Nils Bjurman – her former guardian and one of the people she is accused of murdering – raping her. Mikael compels a civil servant, Bang Janeryd, to reveal that Gullberg and Rottinger had visited the Prime Minister years ago to urge a cover-up of the Zalachenko affair.
Lisbeth starts working on an autobiography to document her actions and motives from childhood to the present. She continues to have nightmares of memories about her time at St. Stephen's, her father and half-brother, and of her rape by Bjurman. Mikael continues to pursue Teleborian, with Christer's help. They also follow a Section member to a flat that Fredrik Clinton had been to four hours before. Lisbeth finishes her autobiography and sends it to Mikael, and Jonasson informs Lisbeth she cannot remain at the hospital but must be transferred to prison in a couple of days. He is surprised that she is not worried about the trial.
The strongman Niedermann (Micke Spreitz), who previously tried to kill Lisbeth's best friend, has remained a fugitive, wanted for killing a police officer. Sonny, of the motorcycle gang from the previous film, is informed that he was searched, but found clean, and that his friend had sent Niedermann to hide out in his home. There, he finds his brother dead and his girlfriend tied, gagged, and apparently assaulted. She tells him that Niedermann was the culprit, and Sonny vows revenge. Fredrik Clinton, in dialysis, is given a copy of Lisbeth's autobiography, and is told that none of it can be proven. Meanwhile, Erika, who has left her job at Millennium to take over as editor of a large daily newspaper, has been receiving anonymous, violently obscene hate mail, which causes an uproar in the office. In prison, Lisbeth is interrogated by the prosecutor but says nothing. Annika is later given Lisbeth's computer and the DVD, which she watches. Niedermann breaks into an abandoned warehouse and kills a witness, a random cyclist. Teleborian finally meets with Lisbeth, who again remains silent.
Erika's bedroom window has been smashed, and in desperation she has called Milton Security. Mikael learns that someone has just broken into his apartment and planted cocaine and cash there. He concludes that they are trying to frame him, since they cannot hurt the magazine. Mikael decides to meet Erika at a restaurant named "Samir's Gryta." The police try to warn Mikael of an attempt to kill them there, and Mikael fends off the assault as the police hurry toward the restaurant. The Section is dismayed to find their hired hit men have failed.
On the day of her murder trial, Lisbeth enters court with piercings, a mohawk hairstyle, black makeup, and dark clothing. Called as an expert witness for the prosecution, Teleborian characterizes Lisbeth's autobiography as merely the product of her paranoid delusions. Annika gradually demolishes Teleborian's credibility, using Lisbeth's words and files from the hospital. She shows the video proving Bjurman raped Lisbeth, demonstrating that her statements were completely true.
As Annika presents her case, the police arrest the people involved with the Section and seize their place of operation. Called to the stand, Mikael shows that Teleborian had written his psychiatric opinions before he had even been allowed to interview Lisbeth. Then Annika calls Edklinth to the stand, and he states that the opinions were formulated in cooperation with Jonas Sandberg, using his computer as proof. Teleborian is left speechless. Edklinth tells Teleborian he is to be arrested on charges of possessing over 8,000 items of child pornography (which Plague had discovered after hacking his laptop), and his computer is seized as evidence. After Teleborian is arrested, the court rules that there is no further need for Lisbeth to be detained in custody.
The Millennium workers celebrate their victory, as Erika leaves the newspaper job and returns as editor in chief. Lisbeth is encouraged by Annika to check the property she has inherited from Zala and discovers the warehouse where Niedermann was hiding. Niedermann attempts to trap her in the warehouse and kill her, but she is too fast for him. She uses a nail gun to nail Niedermann's feet to the floor. She considers nailing him in the head but instead phones Sonny and tells the bikers where to find him. Then she calls the police after the bikers arrive.
Lisbeth returns home, Mikael briefly visits her to tell her that the motorcycle gang killed Niedermann and were arrested soon after. They have a brief conversation that might or might not be a prelude to a further relationship.
The film was released in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark on 29 November 2009, and in Finland and Iceland in January 2010.[3] The film was subsequently released in other European countries throughout the spring and summer of 2010. The film opened the Scottsdale (Arizona) International Film Festival on 1 October 2010,[4] and was screened on 13 October 2010 at the Mill Valley (California) Film Festival;[5] the film then had a limited release in United States and Canadian theaters beginning 29 October 2010.[3]
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 53% based on 125 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10, the consensus being, "Slow and mostly devoid of the stellar chemistry between its two leads, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest is a disappointingly uneven conclusion to the Millennium trilogy."[6]
Despite the low rating, the film did receive positive reviews from such noteworthy critics as Peter Travers, James Berardinelli, and Roger Ebert,[7] who gave the film three out of four stars, stating, "These are all very well-made films. Like most European films, they have adults who are grown-ups, not arrested adolescents. Mikael and Erika, his boss and lover, have earned the lines in their faces, and don't act like reckless action heroes. They make their danger feel so real to us that we realize the heroes of many action movies don't really believe they're in any danger at all."[8]
Reviewing the original Swedish version in national daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Jan Söderqvist is dismissive of the thin plot: her article is titled 'No, it doesn't last the distance', and laments that "the whole responsibility for carrying this grandiose production rests on Lisbeth Salander's slender shoulders".[9] But Söderqvist remains enthusiastic about Rapace and her character, Lisbeth Salander: "Salander is, on the other hand, undeniably an original and fascinating character, full of possibilities and secrets, and if Noomi Rapace builds an international acting career on these three films I have nothing to say against it."[9] Söderqvist continues: "There is an enticing darkness in her glance and a brittle hardness about her defences that more than matches her tattoos." [9]
Maaret Koskinen, reviewing the film in Sweden's national daily Dagens Nyheter, found it a pity "that the subsequent Millenium films dribble away a given golden opportunity" and "devalue an unprecedented accumulation of popular cultural capital".[10] All that remains in the third section, writes Koskinen, is a skeleton (of the book's power). Besides, she notes, "one sees Noomi Rapace far too little."[10]
The DVD and Blu-ray were released in Scandinavia on 12 March 2010, and the U.S. releases are expected for release 25 January 2011. The extended miniseries Millennium version was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Scandinavia on 30 July 2010.
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