Hello and welcome everyone.
If you have a halfway passing interest in these inconsequential series of words, then you may have realised that there was a 500 word gap last Monday where a blog entry should have been. Truth is I was suffering from a 'technical issue' that meant I could neither write nor upload anything to this platform.
However, my gnarled, withered fingers are coiled about each other so I am technically crossing my fingers that such issues won't take hold here.
So the last few weeks have mostly been dominated by a 3 episode miniseries. Seeing as each episode is a good 3 hours long, I've decided to class it as a film series. It also helps that I quite enjoyed them.
Let's go.
The Millennium Series (2010)
-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
It's odd. I don't know what it is about the Scandinavians and their crime fiction. Certainly Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy is a well known, well read series of books dealing primarily with the character of Lisbeth Salander. The Swedish title for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo translates as Men Who Hate Women, a theme that strongly appears in this gritty and visual crime film.
The film is a tightly directed version of the unevenly paced novel. The pacing of the film seems to slip quite dramatically from revelation upon revelation to stagnant periods where not much happens to further either the characters or the plot. It certainly looks amazing, the landscape is visually stunning and the sense of isolation of this community is well realised. What also looks great are the characters themselves.
I usually try not to remark on how the characters but certainly Michael Nyqvist has a perfect look as a weathered journalist. He is not a 'pretty' man, he has a handsome quality to him and a well rounded personality but he's not a hero. He is more moral and sympathetic than almost any other character on the screen but he goes through some rough times and his face is able to show almost every line and wrinkle. But he pales in significance to the real star of the show: Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.
She isn't nice enough to be sympathetic on that level, she's not nasty enough to be a piece of shit. She is a tiny built, chain smoking, bi-sexual, gothic, intelligent, headstrong character who relies on herself and very few other people. She is a truly interesting character and certainly her story arc in the film contains most of the gritter moments. It isn't a nice story and her revenge against several people who do her wrong is not nice to watch but it's grisly and unmissable. Certainly, for a character as interesting as her to fill the screen, it is odd that she actually has very little to do with the main plot until halfway through.
The actual plot of the film awkwardly introduces ANOTHER mystery halfway through, which, on top of the main mystery doesn't make too much sense. However, the ending of this second mystery is the one that satisfies. I found the same outcome with the novel which I guess makes sense but the ending of the book feels a bit of a cop out and not a truly satisfying ending to what was a compelling mystery.
However, this is a gritty and compelling crime film and sets up extremely well developed and written characters for the later instalments in the series.
Trailer:
-The Girl Who Played with Fire
Certainly after the events of the last film were nicely wrapped up within the 3 hour running time, this expansion of the character of Lisbeth Salander and the new perils she finds herself in is as compelling as the first part of the series.
The tone shifts more this time from fascism and misogyny towards bureaucratic corruption and institutional misogyny. Certainly this film involves the Swedish police as well as government and both institutions contains deeply nasty people, some of them have a kind of ingrained sexism which, if nothing else, conflicts against the women working in the same offices, let alone the alternative character of Lisbeth Salander.
Certainly, the character of Lisbeth is expanded here with more detail of her young life as well as her family horrifying the viewers. In fact, the ties to family seem a little forced in the film. It's just so happens that various family members are important, that is why x and y and z. It's a little convenient. Mikael Blomkvist is once again involved in horrible goings on when some journalists investigating the sex trade are murdered.
The relationship between Blomkvist and Salander is much more interesting this time around. Initially, Blomkvist worries about Salander as some kind of parent would but as the events of the film proceed, it is obvious that there is still a distance between the two which is quite a fresh difference from the norm.
However, the main highlight of the film for me comes from Lisbeth's drive for revenge. It is different from the kind of the revenge she gains against Bjurman in the previous film but Noomi Rapace has a fantastic steel edge that really means that Salander comes across as utterly driven and devoted and much stronger than her build would suggest.
However, the plot is the weaker point and the film ends far too suddenly. Whilst it does set up the third part of the series nicely, it's frustrating to not see a proper climax to the events.
This has a difference in tone which may surprise those who really enjoyed Dragon Tattoo but the characters are no less enthralling.
Trailer:
-The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
And so we reach the final part of the trilogy.
Following straight on from Played With Fire, this film deals much more with conspiracy and an attempt to prove Salander's insanity so she can be committed again.
There are moments during this part of the series which are among the best out of the whole trilogy, however, as the trial starts and continues, it slowly loses steam and whilst it ends in a satisfactory way, it doesn't quite have the 'bang' you'd hope for.
The start of the film is incredible, dealing directly with the end of the previous film in a way that you wish there was an extra 30 minutes at the end of Playing With Fire. However, the ongoing saga with the police, various government institutions and the journalists themselves intertwine and there's conspiracy, assassination attempts.
Certainly, the main characters are every bit as engaging as you'd hope. Again Rapace and Nyqvist are on top form here. There are many peripheral characters given larger roles and it helps drag along the thin story until the trial begins.
It's a shame that the big showdown of many characters is in a courtroom because Salander herself remains so quiet. It's almost always been her driven, albeit, illegal activities that thrill but here she remains quite whilst a lawyer talks most of the time. She's there giving information which you yourself have managed to piece together over the last seven and a half hours but can do nothing too excessive, although it's obvious that she wants to.
It's odd that for a character written as free as Lisbeth Salander, that her biggest moment comes in a court room. After the trial, there is revenge of a more physical kind against a character who escaped at the end of Fire but it's not the slimy pieces of shit that you hate in their first scenes.
It's not a bad end to the trilogy at all but it seems oddly muted.
However, all three instalments of the Millennium series are full of drama, emotion and suspense. It's not the best crime fiction around but I would argue that it is certainly better than most.
Trailer:
Phew.
Next week it's 'Goodbye Lenin' and 'Thelma and Louise'.
Until then, goodbye.
