The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

Director Daniel Alfredson concludes the trilogy of films from Stieg Larsson’s mega-selling Millennium books with an unfortunate sense of putting a suffering thing out of its misery. Having made the point that Sweden isn’t as civilized as we’d like to believe, Alfredson and writers Jonas Frykberg and Ulf Ryberg busy themselves with an arguably Nordic neat-freakery of order restoration by tying up all their loose ends. The plot is thick with accusation, blowback from old Cold War conspiracies and a rather dazzling array of handsome sweaters. Wee punk pixie Noomi Rapace returns as the ever indomitable heroine Lisbeth Salander, who, alas, spends most of the movie recovering in hospital or awaiting trial in prison (wherein she’s at least resourceful enough to outfit herself in a mohawk and full-leather retro-Goth regalia), while her journalist pal (Michael Nyqvist) researches her case and his sister (Annika Hallin) signs on as Salander’s defense attorney. There’s a missed chance: With some reframing, the film might have worked better as The Woman Who Made Sure That the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Finally Saw the Justice She’d Long Been Denied.