The Girl in the Spider’s Web

The Crown’s Claire Foy stars in the latest instalment of the Dragon Tattoo franchise and in terms of budget, effects and cinematography this certainly looks like a regal production – but look is the operative word. The cinematography is undoubtedly impressive, as is Fede Álvarez’s fast-paced direction, but it is the acting prowess of Foy that ultimately wakes an otherwise sedate story.

We begin with a flashback of a young Lisbeth escaping the clutches of her controlling and sexually abusive father, subsequently abandoning her sister. Moving to the present, we find the protagonist in full super hero mode as she enacts revenge on a rapist. The current consciousness of the #MeToo movement is teased but sadly not built upon and developed further. Instead, we are capitulated into the main story, involving a computer program that allows its users to access the world’s nuclear missile arsenal. The creator of this program (Stephen Merchant) hires Lisbeth to essentially protect it and she soon finds herself tangled in several webs as she becomes the target of a shady organisation that appears to have ties to the family she escaped as a child.

Inevitably, Lisbeth and her estranged sister are eventually brought face to face, although this feels like a subplot when arguably further focus on this aspect of the story would have made for a more interesting and dramatic journey for both the characters concerned and the audience. That said, most people will know what to expect out of such a film – high octane stunts, fast-paced action and impressive effects, all of which are offered in abundance. It just feels a pity that with a lead actor of this calibre, and the potential of the complex character, we are ultimately spun a pedestrian picture that simply goes through the motions and delivers style over substance.

Jonathan Marshall

The Girl in the Spider’s Web is released nationwide on 21^st November 2018.

Watch the trailer for The Girl in the Spider’s Web here: