A Book A Week

Released in 2005, author Steig Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo became an internationally best-selling novel that launched a franchise that still excites readers to this day. The original trilogy of books quickly inspired a Swedish film adaptation. Hollywood quickly took notice and hired acclaimed director David Fincher to helm an American remake of the first film. Despite solid reviews and a breakout performance by Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, adaptations of the rest of the novels never materialized.

Fast-forward to today and the release of The Girl in the Spider's Web. The movie is based upon the fourth book in the series, the first to be authored by David Lagercrantz following Larsson's death. It has been described as both a sequel and "soft reboot" to Fincher's 2011 film. With a completely new cast and director, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Still, I enjoyed the novel enough to give this new version a fair shot.

After a flashback to Salander's childhood and an opening credits that rivals some of the best from the James Bond franchise, we immediately are given a glimpse at what Salander has been up to all these years. Claire Foy, who takes over the role from Mara, immediately shows she's not playing around. We see her discipline a man who regularly beat his wife. She hangs him from the ceiling, transfers all of his money to his wife, and tasers him. It seems the same kind of justice that Salander regularly doled out in the earlier books and movies is still commonplace.

The movie soon mirrors the plot of the novel as Salander is tasked with hacking into the American NSA to retrieve a file with cataclysmic stakes. The file has the potential to give a single user the control of the world's complete nuclear arsenal. Its creator, Frans Balder, has realized that no one should have this kind of power. Now Salander must steal it and protect it and its creator at all costs.

It is hard to judge The Girl in the Spider's Web purely on its own merit. The whole time I was watching it, I kept comparing it to the movies that have come before it. Fair or not, this latest adaptation will forever be woven into the fold with the rest of the books and films. Director Fede Alvarez, best known for his breakout hit Don't Breathe, directs the action beats in a way that is both exciting and easy to follow. Like the novel that it is based on, the film focuses more of its attention on Foy's Salander than Mikael Blomkvist, played here by Sverrir Gudnason. The movie assumes the audience will have some familiarity with the stories that have preceded it, even referencing events from the two novels that have yet to receive American adaptations.

My afternoon showing of the film was sold out, giving me hope that more movies will follow this one. While I'm not sure I liked The Girl in the Spider's Web as much as I liked Fincher's take on Dragon Tattoo, I wouldn't mind seeing more from this cast and crew. The film is not as meticulously composed as Fincher's version,  but Alvarez brings a grit, modernity, and suspense that can't be denied. There are two previous novels by Larsson and a new one by Lagercrantz, so the potential for a sequel is definitely there. Salander's character is even more relevant today with the rise of the #MeToo movement, so I could easily see more of these movies making a wave in the future.

"Personally, I've got this thing against men who harm children and women, and that makes me dangerous."

There's no denying the cultural and commercial success that Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy gained. Beginning with the stellar The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Larsson's series placed a spotlight upon violence against women and featured the game-changing protagonist and titular "girl" Lisbeth Salander. Tragically, at the time that the books were reaching their success, Larsson passed away, leaving plans for a fourth and fifth novel abandoned. After a much-publicized legal battle between Larsson's family and domestic partner, author David Lagercrantz has taken on the role of continuing the story of a character who re-defined a genre.

For the most part, Lagercrantz does an admiral job at faithfully honoring the world that Larsson depicted. The Girl in the Spider's Web begins with someone hacking into the US NSA mainframe and accessing files that could be detrimental to world security. We quickly learn that the someone in question is none other than the punk-goth hacker Lisbeth Salander. Who else could be responsible for such a high-scale and technically difficult hack?!

The novel also sees Mikael Blomkvist face the struggling print industry. As the lead reporter and co-owner of the Millennium Magazine, Blomkvist feels a personal responsibility to bring a high-profile piece of investigative journalism to help boost sales and notoriety. Leads have been thin, but Blomkvist is optimistic about his recent contact with a noted professor. The professor is renowned for his advancement of artificial intelligence and promises to give Blomkvist a scoop that could bring the entire industry to its knees. They just have to survive long enough to see the investigation to fruition.

True to form, The Girl in the Spider's Web offers a complex and darkly tinged plot full of cutting-edge technology, suspenseful twists and revelations, and the edgy characters we have come to expect. Like the previous novels, the novel takes a bit of time to establish the interwoven story elements, but it quickly kicks into action about 15% in. While Lagercrantz never pushes the characters to the shocking and graphic places that Larsson did, he still does a fine job at continuing their story. I was delighted to be able to read a continuation of both of them. The novel is definitely different from the trilogy that preceded it, but Lagercrantz hits enough of the established beats to satisfy readers of the earlier novels. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more about Salander and Blomkvist in the next novel.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2018, 17)