The Girl In The Spider's Web Review: 3 Ups & 6 Downs

4. It Wastes A Strong Cast

Say what you want about the film, but it certainly has an over-qualified cast given the quality of the material.

In addition to Claire Foy in the lead role, the brilliant Lakeith Stanfield is completely wasted in the nothing part of an NSA analyst, Blade Runner 2049's Sylvia Hoeks makes for a campy antagonist, a solid (if distractingly cast) Stephen Merchant briefly shows up as a techie central to the plot, and Phantom Thread's Vicky Krieps gets scant moments of screen time as Mikael Blomkvist's (Sverrir Gudnason) lover and boss.

Nobody's really given anything interesting or exciting to do, and though the allure of a paycheck is understandable, it's a damn shame there wasn't more for these fine actors to chew on.