Directed by Daniel Alfredsen
Twenty-seven year old Lisbeth Salander (Naomi Replace) has been through hell and those who have kept up with her life via books or films will know all the details. This is the third and last instalment of her battle for survival, based on the book by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. In a critical condition, she lies in intensive care in a Swedish hospital with a bullet in her brain. When she recovers, she is to be taken to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. That is if the people who want her dead – her father, her brother and the aging members of a rogue government security unit – don’t kill her first.
Lisbeth has suffered a lot but she has created her own world and her own set of rules, as the existing ones haven’t helped her. Lisbeth wants revenge against the people who have tried to kill her and those who have nearly destroyed her life, but there’s not much she can do as she tries to recover from her injuries under continual police guard. Larsson was a journalist and editor-in-chief of a Swedish magazine and an expert on right-wing extremism, and so it is no surprise that journalist and editor-in-chief Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomkvist) helps Lisbeth fight for justice. Not only is there the fight to prove Lisbeth innocent but there is a contingent of men in dark suits in positions of power who need to be exposed and brought to justice.
There is no need to be familiar with the books or the previous films to enjoy this flick as ample flashbacks hint at the back story. The books, of course, are much richer in detail but the three Swedish productions recreate this memorable fairy tale as the modern-day heroine battles against entrenched systematic injustices.
Lezly Herbert
