WWFOS (Women Who Find Out Stuff), local volunteer investigators, recently responded to several requests to solve mysteries that seem to abound in Patagonia. A missing ESA (Emotional Support Animal), a hedgehog, was finally found with a neighbor’s cat that apparently had adopted it as part of her litter. Next, they solved a mystery for a person complaining of a nightly intruder who never stole anything, but only rummaged through the kitchen trash. After a long night of surveillance, they discovered a javelina entering and leaving through an unsecured back door in need of repair.
They were also sought out to review a new movie for an organization in our area planning a theater party. Five WWFOS volunteers went to see “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” just released in November, described as an American sequel to “The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo” made in 2009, the first of a Swedish trilogy based on the best-selling and award-winning novels by Stieg Larsson. They had seen the original movie, which revealed murders covered up by a powerful family motivated by underlying white supremacism and hatred for women, a well-developed story with emotional intensity.
The WWFOS volunteers thought that in this new movie, created from a novel by a different author trying to continue the series, Lisbeth has become a female version of James Bond, involved in a hackneyed plot of international espionage. They were uncertain throughout
the film about who was doing what, unable to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. It seemed to them that the cast was as uncertain about this as they were. Scene after scene followed no discernible story line. Filmed in freezing dark nights, they felt the only consistent character was “the cold Scandinavian winter.” They couldn’t tell if the movie
was primarily about stealing computer programs that could access codes for nuclear weapons—or about the relationship between two sisters whose father was an incestuous psychopath, from whom only Lisbeth escaped.
Unlike the original Swedish movie, a mystery thriller which brought up some big questions about society, this new movie was all action with almost no dialogue, and no coherent plot. In addition, they were not entertained by the vehicle chases, by several unknown people hurrying to computers to glimpse world maps, and racing through tunnels and long hallways in dilapidated buildings. Occasional explosions added color, however, to the constant darkness, and woke them up enough to get through the almost two-hour movie.
WWFOS rated the story, filming and character development of this new movie “all of our ten thumbs down.” But they would like to thank the organization that reached out to them. They enjoyed their time together in spite of the movie and hope to be able to continue finding out stuff!