The Girl in the Spider's Web: Review

Claire Foy delivers an outstanding performance in a stylish, entertaining Swedish thriller which gives audiences another chance to support strong, female-led action franchises

Claire Foy in 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' (Sony/MGM)

by Jack Linsdell

Fede Alvarez's 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' starring Claire Foy as the vigilante-turned-action heroine Lisabeth Salander is acting as a soft reboot/prequel to David Fincher's notable 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' for Sony/MGM and friends. And, so far with only $30 million worldwide (50/50 domestic/worldwide split) and mixed-to-negative reviews (apart from Foy's performance it seems) it's been proven that fans and general audiences aren't a bit interested in this new action/thriller flick. 

Now, first things first. I have never read any of Steig Larsson's trilogy or the follow up novels (this is based on the first book not to be penned by Larsson). I have also only seen Fincher's original film in parts, so when reviewing this Claire Foy actioner, I am not doing it from the perspective of a fan. 

'The Girl in the Spider's Web' has a simple premise for the action to propel from. The narrative begins in a remote snowy location in Sweden, with the young Salander and her sister Camilla playing chest and having fun, in what is a loving sister bond between them. When called to their abusive father's office for a chat, Lisbeth decides to run away from him and when Camilla hesitates, she leaves her behind. Flash forward 16 years, and Salander is now a vigilante hacker, using her skills to obtain freelance work helping abused women escape from purely evil/lustful/violent men. When she is recruited by Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant in a glorified cameo) to retrieve a program capable of accessing the world's nuclear weapons codes, she comes face to face with a face from the past. 

(Spoilers!) as the story reaches it's third act, we find out that an intricate web of so called Spiders has been set up by Salander's sister, who has assumed the network of operative owned by their long-dead father who ran a Russian crime syndicate. Camilla had faked her suicide after 16 years of abuse at the hands of their father, to allow her to set up this network of Spiders. Indeed, as you can guess, the two plots intertwine when Camilla is the one after this nuclear codes program. 

Now, for a thriller narrative, the plotline is very simplistic and doesn't rely on a whole backstory to be explained as the story develops. Unlike Fincher's first film, this flick is much easier to follow - which is a refreshing thing for this type of genre to have occasionally. The Alverez, Steven Knight and Jay Basu penned Swedish actioner establishes everything you need to know in a really beautifully crafted establishing scene with the two young sisters and allows you to go from there. Indeed, the opening shot is of the two young sisters moving chess pieces, telling us this will be a story of how each sister tries to outmanoeuvre the other. Yet, despite being simplistic, it is no less coherent than any more complex thriller out there, with essentially a few subplots interweaving with Salander's main storyline (Balder's son, journalist Mikael Blomkvist and American agent Edwin Needham), providing added depth and interest to the film.

Pacing wise, the film is yet like Sony's other thriller franchise biggies of 2018, namely 'The Equalizer 2' and 'Sicario 2: Soldado', in that it is not afraid to have a slower-paced narrative that takes its time to tell a story and build tension and intrigue over it's entire run-time. As a slight digression, with this film as well, Sony's action-thriller slate this year has been very impressive - with the studio producing three, mid-budget, refreshingly narrative/character-based thrillers, which happen to be well-made films artistically. 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' pacing isn't really an issue and it's nice to see an action film not relying on said scenes to add 'fake/deceiving' pacing to them. If there was an issue to be had, it's that the film never goes deep on any level, be it emotionally or narrative wise, which means that there is very little apart from interest in characters to really keep audiences in their seats. It's fine for the narrative to be paced the way it is, and even to be structured simplistically, however a little more emotionally depth would have been the cherry on the top.

The marketing for the film sold this as an action-packed Swedish thriller. Now, it is not action packed in terms of fans of the genre would think of - be it Jason Bourne, Taken or James Bond. But, I believe that's a good thing because it grounds Salander's heroine character in our world and doesn't give us action scenes for the sake of action scenes - like McQuarrie's 'Mission: Impossible Fallout' we only get action scenes when it is meant to propel plot forward or aid characterisation and for that the film earns more bonus points for avoiding typical genre habits and feeling refreshingly unique. When the action does occur though, it's solidly-made with some fantastic and very real and practical stunt work on display involving motorbikes, cars and well-staged fight scenes. Indeed, there are some standout sequences like an action beat on a bridge whose middle section gets raised and a cat and mouse chase through an airport that work really well as very practical and engaging action scenes. Especially considering the films mere $43 million budget (about what Universal/Comcast Corp. spends on Rowan Atkinson's Johnny English films), the fact that audiences can be wowed with real locations and stunt work is another appealing aspect to the film. 

Speaking of locations, this Claire Foy-led flick features some breath-taking aerial shots of snowy Swedish mountains and roads, which are worth seeing the film for in themselves. Indeed, they help ground the film further in our world by showing us the landscape that the action plays out in. Alverez's direction is top class here. He's managed to make a film that looks and feels stylish, classy and aesthetically beautiful, with many location shots (like a phone call between two people facing each other in two lifts on the outside of opposite buildings for example) be filmed in a way to create imagery reflecting characters and narrative beats. Like, the direction on Sony's other two thrillers of 2018, he has really adopted a style that has made this flick and solidly-made film that could stand up to any drama or indie-budget romance that gets lauded with critical praise. However, when the narrative gets gritty and dark and characters get desperate and extreme, his style allows maximum tension and emotion to be created. Purely, his direction lifts the story from the pages and makes it into a decently engaging and solidly-made flick.

Performance wise, Claire Foy is unquestionably an outstanding actress who continues to impress time and time again with some knock out dramatic performances. Here, the material requires her to do much the same, playing on her strengths and delivering yet more examples of how emotionally intricate and profound her portrayals of characters can be. The climatic scene between the two sisters on top of a snowy cliff creates the whole meaning of the film - a story about two sisters, who ultimately abandoned each other and have been scarred by their abusive father ever since -  and Foy's prowess here shines through helping to make this the pinnacle scene of the whole film. Supporting cast wise, everyone else have decent performances although Foy is the standout. 

An important note, you don't really need to have seen/read any prior Lisbeth Salander material to understand this. Yes, my limited knowledge about Salander and Blomkvist having had a relationship previously helped me understand the fractured relationship between the pair at points in the story and understand how this is distancing itself as a years later sequel to Fincher's original, but the film allows general audiences to watch it knowing that it isn't restricted to fan service. The fact that general audiences didn't show up, will no doubt disappoint all involved. 

Speaking of disappointments, I've spoken at length on many occasions how audiences claim they want strong and realistic portrayals of women and new female-led franchises but then fail to show up when these films are released. Yet again, with the current commercial performance, 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' is likely to be another chance missed to create a "strong but vulnerable" presentation of woman (the most realistic one out there) and to establish a female-led action series. Yes, this film doesn't set up a sequel, but if Sony and friends had been looking at a $150 million worldwide total on a $40 budget then we might have had more "Claire Foy stars as Lisbeth Salander for another Swedish thriller story to solve" films - which I would have enjoyed. And, there are plenty of books to use. The point is, and I'll say it again, that don't complain about the lack of true female presentation or female-led franchises when you fail to turn up to see this Claire Foy actioner in cinemas. Yes, not everyone will like the film as much as me, and that's fair enough, however at least turn up and support female-led films and you never know, you may get a new franchise started in which they improve on the quality in the sequel. 

Overall, Sony has really impressed me this year delivering a third example (from them) of how a refreshingly old-style approach to action-thrillers (practical stunts, slower yet coherent narratives, drawn out and stylish action sequences, character-led etc.) can actually make these genre pieces solidly well-made and immensely entertaining flicks. Yes, nothing is ever perfect and commercial performance and social arguments notwithstanding, 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' is a solid, stylish and compelling Swedish thriller that I fear, would have been given much more credit had it have come out 10 years ago. 

4/5 STARS