[usr 4.5]
Young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.
I never saw the original “Dragon Tattoo” trilogy with Noomi Rapace in the role of Lisbeth Salander, the pierced, tattooed, introverted, sociopathic Swedish young woman who just happens to be gifted at computer hacking. I did, unfortunately, happen to see David Fincher’s remake of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. Although the story itself is bleak in nature, Fincher managed to make it even more so, forcing the audience to have to sit through a thoroughly gloomy narrative accompanied by dreary and oppressive visuals, and a less than exciting storyline.
With “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead,” “Don’t Breathe”) delivers what Fincher should have done back in 2011, a tense, exciting thrill ride, filled with spectacular cinematography and top-notch performances.
This time around, our titular character is played by Claire Foy (TV’s “The Crown”) and she creates a more likable and believable character than Rooney Mara did in Fincher’s vision. As the story begins, Lisbeth is asked if she is interested in a job, a very dangerous one to boot. It involves Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), a former NSA employee now living in Stockholm who after leaving the company, created a program called FIREWALL, which gives the user access to the world’s nuclear codes. While it currently resides within the NSA, Balder gets cold feet, stating that he feels it is too powerful for one country to possess.
Lisbeth’s job is to hack into the NSA, retrieve the program, and then give it back to Balder, who plans on destroying it but things don’t go according to plan. Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield), a current NSA employee whose job is to watch over FIREWALL, stares in disbelief as the program is deleted in front of his very eyes. A computer hacker himself, he is able to track down Lisbeth’s IP address and makes his way to Sweden with the intent of retrieving what belongs to the company. With FIREWALL now sitting on her laptop, she curiously tries to access the program but it is heavily encrypted, prompting her to answer two riddles, both of which were specifically put in place by Balder, with only him knowing the answers.
While waiting to meet Balder, Lisbeth is attacked in her apartment by masked intruders and barely manages to escape with her life after her place is blown to pieces. With FIREWALL now gone, she tries to contact Balder but to no avail. She eventually tracks him down at his condo but before she can talk to him, the masked men that attacked her place, appear, killing Balder and kidnapping his young son August (Christopher Convery). Lisbeth is knocked sideways but manages to get back on her feet and gives chase.
Because of a hidden camera she placed outside Balder’s apartment a few days earlier, she is able to retrieve the license plate from their car and pinpoints their location. As they approach an icy bridge, she manages to hack into the car’s electrical system, causing the brakes to jam, and the airbags to deploy, knocking both driver and passenger out. She scurries to the car and retrieves August from the back seat but as she is about to leave, she notices a woman in red standing on the other side of the bridge. A face from her past long thought dead.
As the story unravels, she discovers the masked men belong to a terrorist organization called The Spiders and that the woman in red is their leader. Knowing that they will do anything to access FIREWALL and that August holds the key, she takes him and hides out in an old abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, a place where she used to go to escape her abusive childhood and then calls on her old friend Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), an investigative journalist whom she had a relationship with in the past. Once he reaches their location, however, the woman in red appears and takes August and tries to have Lisbeth and Mikael killed but they escape. With nothing left to lose, Lisbeth calls on Edwin Needham to help her retrieve FIREWALL and August and knows where she must go to rescue them, her deserted childhood home in the Swedish wilderness, a place where her worst nightmares were brought to life, and now she must face them again, one last time.
The cinematography shows just how beautiful, and brutal, Sweden can be, its frigid landscape permeating into the film, a central character in and of itself. Director Fede Alvarez keeps the story moving at a steady pace, something sorely missing from David Fincher’s adaptation. Claire Foy does the character of Lisbeth Salander justice, showing us just how disconnected she is from the world but occasionally, letting her guard down enough to show us that underneath her gruff exterior, is a young woman who really just wants to be loved. Composer Roque Baños infuses the movie with musical themes that evoke Bernard Herrman, in particular, his score for “Cape Fear.” Sporadically, Baños pays homage to Herrmann utilizing harsh crescendos of extreme violence and discord, signifying moments of fear and dread the audience feels throughout the story. Overall, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” is a welcome return to form for a series that seemed doomed after Fincher’s overly grim “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Hopefully, Sony will continue with more films in the franchise as there is so much more to Ms. Salander than meets the eye.
In theaters Friday, November 9th
