The Girl in the Spider's Web

The Girl in the Spider's Web

Ten Second Review: Claire Foy shines in a rather dim film filled with outrageous implausibilities and heavy handed exposition that removes any and all suspense it could have had.

Lisbeth Salander is back but in a less scandi-noir form and more an american action film. This soft re-boot sees Claire Foy take up the tattooed mantle and take it she does.

The film begins with a scene set during Lisbeth’s childhood. We see her and her sister playing chess and then their abuse at the hands of her father. She escapes and we are brought into the present where Lisbeth is exacting justice on a man who abuses his partner. The film then moves into its central narrative which sees Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), a programmer for the NSA, asking her to retrieve the FireFall program. He believes it is too dangerous and wants to destroy it. Lisbeth must navigate the government agencies and gangs looking to steal the program while being careful not to be caught herself.

It is here that I would usually embed the trailer so you can see if it’s the kind of film you are interested in but I don’t think it would be right to in this case. Trailers have come under fire in recent years for showing too much and giving too much away, but in this case, giving too much away is surpassed by simply showing you the end of the film. I’m not kidding when I say that the climax the whole film builds to is literally in the trailer! Giving away the twists actually ended up becoming a systematic problem throughout the film. It seemed intent on heavy handedly implying what was about to happen, not to surprise its audience with a twist in a twist, but to do exactly what you think it will do.

This ham-fisted writing hampered what should be a cool, sleek and mysterious scandi-noir thriller into yet another american action film. The only surprise the film had to offer was Claire Foy showing her range and being the most watchable part of the film. I think that if you told people when The Crown was first released that she would soon play Salander, they wouldn’t just laugh at you but also at her. It seems miles away from the Netflix hit but those who saw Foy in Unsane will know just how good she can be at developing a character, not just for an audience, but into being her own. Based on Foy’s performance I would be interested in seeing her in the role again but with a completely different team producing the film.

Sacrificing the niche noir roots for the more mainstream action film tone, The Girl in the Spider’s Web buckles under a convoluted plot filled with choppy dialogue and implausible moments, but is propped up by a good performance from Foy. The plot goes from cool and tight detective story to yet another “hero has to save the whole world from blowing up” story. In a film that is at points laughable, she manages to show the true range of her acting ability, taking on a very different role to any we’ve seen her in previously.

There is a really good plot somewhere in this film and there’s plenty of interesting characters too. It’s a shame that the film makers couldn’t bring the parts together to make this film as engaging and grounded as it could have been, especially considering that there are scenes in it where a film like that can be seen. As a standard action film, with huge leaps and invincible characters, it’s perfectly fine, but I don’t think that’s what people are turning up to see.

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I’ve added the trailer below and I realised that in the brief 5 second cut at the beginning (to make sure you don’t skip it), it manages to give away enough to tell you the end of the film! That’s actually impressive.

The past never forgets. Claire Foy is Lisbeth Salander in #GirlintheSpidersWeb - watch the new trailer now. In theaters November 9th. Subscribe to Sony Pictures for exclusive content: http://bit.ly/SonyPicsSubscribe Follow Lisbeth on Social: https://www.facebook.com/TheGirlintheSpidersWeb https://www.instagram.com/SpidersWebMovie https://twitter.com/SpidersWebMovie Visit Site: http://www.girlinthespidersweb.movie/site/ Synopsis: A new Dragon Tattoo story comes to the screen starring Claire Foy ("The Crown") as Lisbeth Salander, the fierce, outcast vigilante defender from the acclaimed Millennium book series created by Stieg Larsson, in The Girl in the Spider's Web.

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