The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

Last part of the Millenium Trilogy, and thus, in a way, immune to review; the decision whether or not to watch it is basically based on how you felt about The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Anyhow, FWIW, Hornet's Nest takes over where Played With Fire left off; Lisbeth is grievously wounded after confronting her father and half-brother. She, and her father, are taken off to hospital and patched back together, while her Frankenstein's-monster-like half brother lumbers off into the woods scaring the villagers.

We then get to the crux of the matter; her father, as we now know, is an Ex-KGB guy who a faction of the Swedish Secret Service (I guess they must have one, as unlikely as it sounds) has been keeping and pumping for info for years, in exchange for doing stuff for him which includes incarcerating his murderous daughter in a mental hospital.

Now Lisbeth's back in the clutches of the authorities again, there is to be a hearing once and for all to determine whether or not she is competent to be allowed out in public, or whether she is to be remanded to an institution. Since the SSS guys will probably kill her off if that happens, the matter is of even more paramount importance. Thus, there are two threads going on here; Lisbeth and Blomkvist's sister (who's a lawyer) fighting for Lisbeth's freedom in court, and Blomkvist himself resolving to publish an expose of the SSS guys, and blow their involvement in Lisbeth's previous treatment wide open. And of course, that means a lot of people are going to be threatened, shot at, and killed.

It's a fitting conclusion, in that it *is* a conclusion, which the last film left us gagging for. The whole thing feels more like a tv mini-series than ever before, albeit one which would have left you saying "Wow, did you see The Girl Who... last night?" the following day at work.

Ultimately, I enjoyed it very much. I understand, though, that there's an extended DVD boxed set in Sweden at least, which extends each film, and presents it as a six-part miniseries; I am left wondering if this isn't the series's natural, best format.