Review: The Girl in the Spider's Web

For those who want their darkness made more palatable and their perversities neutered, here arrives The Girl in the Spider's Web with The Crown's Claire Foy continuing to prove her remarkable talent and versatility but, much like the film, paling in comparison to her predecessors.

The Girl in the Spider's Web, based on the fourth novel of the Millenium series and the first not to be written by the novels' creator Stieg Larsson, who died of a heart attack in 2004, is a reconstruction of Lisbeth Salander, a singularly intriguing and complex heroine whose technological prowess is as formidable as her social skills are impoverished. More precisely, this is a deconstruction of Lisbeth, where the thing is still comprised of the same elements and yet is no longer the thing. Steering Lisbeth into Batman meets Bond territory, the film begins with Lisbeth in avenging angel mode, dispensing retribution on men who have victimised women.

The ways in which trauma and victimhood have manifested themselves in later life have always been the foundational bricks of the Millenium series, but The Girl in the Spider's Web is essentially a sustained deus ex machina for Lisbeth to confront the guilt she's carried for abandoning her sister, Camilla, in the hands of their abusive father. There's enough mention of Camilla's death and psychopathic nature to suggest that she's still flesh and blood rather than the ghost that haunts Lisbeth's memories, but before the film arrives at that predictable reveal, it plunges viewers into a convoluted cat and mouse game that often scuppers narrative momentum.

Lisbeth has been enlisted by one Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) to retrieve Firefall, a computer program he developed whilst working for the National Security Agency (NSA). Having been recently terminated from the NSA, he's concerned about the wrong people getting their hands on the program, which can allow a single user to access the tactical and nuclear arsenals of most of the world's superpowers. Lisbeth naturally manages to hack into the NSA and obtain the file, though her actions are noticed by agent Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield), who heads to Stockholm to recover the file. Also in Stockholm are the Spiders, members of a crime syndicate who have been tasked with obtaining Firefall by any means necessary by their mysterious leader. Last but not least is Gabrielle Grane (Synnøve Macody Lund), the deputy director of the Swedish Secret Service whom Balder approaches when he believes that Lisbeth betrayed him and has kept Firefall for herself.

In truth, the interest level in most of the goings-on is equivalent to that of the weakest of the Jason Bourne films. The Girl in the Spider's Web is not necessarily a bad film - in fact, it's sometimes an above-average crime thriller - but it feels less than what it should be and certainly less than the previous film adaptations of Larsson's novels. Most of the time, it feels bland and neutered and Lisbeth herself carries a certain decorum instead of an unforgiving bluntness. Foy certainly does well in the role, but she is nowhere near as impactful as Noomi Rapace or Rooney Mara were when they essayed Lisbeth. It was a gut punch when you saw those two actresses as Lisbeth for the first time; with Foy, as solid as she is, the role is not a perfect fit.

That said, director Fede Álvarez does a great job in the last 30 or 40 minutes when the film finally begins to display a brooding leprosy of the soul that it had been lacking throughout. The final act set piece offers some truly nasty touches such as Lisbeth vacuum-packed in a black plastic bag as well as clever surprises in what could have been a standard shoot-em-up sequence.

The Girl in the Spider's Web

Directed by: Fede Álvarez

Written by: Jay Basu, Fede Álvarez, Steven Knight; based on the novel by David Lagercrantz and the characters created by Stieg Larsson

Starring: Claire Foy, Sylvia Hoeks, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Merchant, Cameron Britt, Vicky Krieps, Sverrir Gudnason, Claes Bang, Andreja Pejic, Mikael Persbrandt, Synnøve Macody Lund