The Girl in the Spider’s Web has no bite

https://www.laineygossip.com 

The Girl in the Spider Web is a mess. The plot is cockamamie. There are few logical connections between the scenes. How Lisbeth Salander gets from one discovery to another makes little sense. Actress Claire Foy has no chance with this script to shine. Fewer plot elements and more insight into her process of detection could have saved this film. What we are left with is a series well constructed set pieces with some decent action and no reason to care. 

It looked good. And that’s the best thing about it. This is another case where a limited series would have been better. And let me emphasize limited. One problem with the trend of TV series is creators don’t know when enough it enough. We don’t need another season of Narcos, though it might be good. We don’t have to watch more Alienist with the next book being adapted from the lessor work, Angel of Darkness. Sometimes, one season is enough. It worked to perfection with The Terror and could have worked with The Girl in the Spider Web.  

Worse, they violated Tex Shelters’ character rule number #1: Don’t have supposedly smart characters do stupid things, especially if the action is against their character. In one scene, Salander disables a car to rescue a genius child. She takes her gun and grabs the boy from the back of the criminals’ car. Take a second to try to figure out what the ruthless Salander does wrong…

She leaves the killers alive! At that point, I called bullshit and started hating the film. Double-tap the killers right away, or give an actual reason she doesn’t kill them. She has no moral code against killing (at this point in the film or books), especially not other killers. Perhaps the assassins wake up and shoot at her, or a helicopter comes over the bridge after her. But don’t leave the killers alive. If she had killed them, it wouldn’t have altered main plot at all. Why the writer and director left in such an obvious mistake is beyond me. 

The criminals aren’t that clever either, but at least Salander tricks them and gets away, and it’s not just their sheer stupidity that keeps her alive. 

One of the worst choices the writer and director make is turning Lisbeth from a local avenger to an international spy. I guess everyone is out to rescue the world: Avengers, James Bond, Agents of SHEILD, Guardians of the Galaxy, but it doesn’t work for this character who is much better on a small scale doling out personal justice. 

If you’re not worried about a cogent plot, elements that don’t add up, confusing action, then The Girl in the Spider Web is for you. 

Rating: Rent/Stream it. It’s cool enough to see what they did with a Hollywood version of the book. But instead, see the much better Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or the Swedish versions of the same films. 

Peace,
Tex Shelters

Bohemian Rhapsody: Mercury Rising

From: https://themoviemylife.files.wordpress.com

Bohemian Rhapsody (BR) starts with Freddy Mercury leaving his family home as a young man to go to see a favorite band, Smile. He meets the members of the band, including guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. They just happen to have lost their singer and Mercury convinces May and Taylor to take him on. 

The film jumps to Queen as recording artists. Suddenly, they are on Top of the Pops singing ‘Killer Queen’. A lot of their early career is left out, and that mainly works.  And while there are some unnecessary fabrications of Queen’s history in the film, most of the changes are innocuous and don’t damage the plot. See the set list for the film here. 

The biopic mainly focuses on Freddy Mercury, but there is enough of the band to satisfy most Queen fans. The film did well  picking out the essential moments of their career, though, I would have liked to see more about the development of their most complicated and adventurous song, Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Before I get too far along, I want to say that Rami Malik was amazing as Mercury. He was able to not only demonstrate the overwhelming charisma of Mercury on stage, but also the sad, melancholy moments and his identity confusion. And Malik did all this without even being British. Score one for Americans playing British icons for a change! Seriously, he’s good. 

Equally good, if not better, is Gwilym Lee as Brian May. I have seen old and new interviews with May and Gwilym has him down from his voice to the slight tilt of the head May makes when he’s arguing a point. Lucy Boynton as Mercury’s friend and one time wife, Mary Austin, was also excellent. And she was also born the U.S.A.! Ha! Okay, she grew up in London. She’s good, is the point, and she can do more. I hope we get to see her and Gwilym in more films.  

Bohemian Rhapsody is a song that stands in stark contrast to many of Queens simplistic hits like ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’ Moreover, the dark complexity of their hit song is quite different from their more upbeat tunes like ‘Radio Gaga.’ 

You don’t have to be a big Queen fan to enjoy this film. In fact, I frankly don’t think some of their hits are that great. The film does, however, help me appreciate them more. The biggest hit and title track to the film is by far their best. Two songs I would have liked to experienced in the film are ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘Death on Two Legs.’ However, there is plenty of music from the band throughout the well-paced film. 

Rollingstone Magazine fact check of the film. 

The film is good looking and well edited. One reviewer I read said BR didn’t show enough of the dark-side of Mercury’s life. Clearly, they wanted another film. More darkness was not required to see how Mercury struggled and at times, was quite an arrogant prick. It’s all in there, BR just doesn’t dwell on the negative and ends on a high note. 

Rating: Pay full price.

Peace,
Tex Shelters