THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST AT THE CINEMA
Update: This blog is now dormant and has been moved to Crime Scraps Review, where you can read all the old posts and more new material. http://crimescraps2.wordpress.com
One of the perks of retirement is the ability to go to the cinema on a winter's afternoon, when most people are working, while paying the concessionary ticket price.
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest was being screened at our newly refurbished local cinema, and the weather outside was very cold and bleak, so off I went.
The virtually empty cinema had blissfully luxurious seats, superb sound [they show live performances by satellite from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York] and a wonderfully wide screen.
Did I enjoy the film? Yes, but then I am addicted to Swedish crime fiction.
This was a film adaptation of a complex book that was going to prove very difficult to translate to the screen.
In September Maxine at Petrona succinctly defined the three Stieg Larsson books very different themes; the first Tattoo, a locked room mystery, the second Fire, a fugitive drama, and Hornets' Nest, a political spy thriller in the Le Carre mould.
At the time I wondered if Hornets' Nest would have been better arranged as a six part TV serial similar to Le Carre's spy thrillers featuring his famous spy master, George Smiley.
The book Hornets' Nest has four interwoven plot lines, and the film was an example of the limitations of a two hour movie in comparison with the depth possible in a novel. That said the film was entertaining, and with the court room scenes fully replicating the tension created in the book. Perhaps I would have left more of the book's Monica Figuerola in the film, but something has to be cut from a 500 page book, and we lost Milton Security's Susanne Linder and Police Inspector Bubanski entirely.
There were some outstanding performances, once again Noomi Rapace is the perfect Lisbeth Salander [why on earth is Hollywood trying to remake the Millenium trilogy without her], and Anders Ahlbom was the epitome of evil as the psychiatrist, Peter Teleborian.
My verdict, a worthy effort at bringing a complex book to the screen.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 9:49 AM
2 Comments:
Glad to hear the movie of Book III is good.
But I am dismayed to read that some of the great women characters' parts were decreased or eliminated altogether.
That is one reason I liked Book III: The resolution is accomplished in basically a non-violent manner, the courtroom repartee and denoument--and the strong, competent, smart women characters, all of them, who collaborate with each other and with Blomkvist and succeed in exonerating Salander, breaking open the conspiracy, doing what needs to be done, and win.
And this book's strong women characters convinced me of Larsson's respectful attitude towards smart and strong women, and refutes the criticism of him as disrespecting women.
These women were an essential part of that plot and book. I won't get over this until I see this movie. Glad I'm forewarned; it's being forearmed, right?
Now I'll go off in a huff about the movie.
I am glad you enjoyed it. We don´t go to the cinema often so we´ll probably wait until we (i.e. my husband) buy the DVD.
Post a Comment
<< Home