‘Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire’ Is An Interesting Yet Sadly Unkicked Hornet’s Nest Of Good Ideas [Sundance Review]

An interesting and well-sourced documentary that probes a largely unfamiliar side of a world-famous author, “Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire” is nevertheless hobbled by a lack of critical introspection. Polished, engaging, and altogether relevant, the effort doesn’t challenge its subject, or ask the viewer to do much but admire him. It takes all of thirty minutes to pull this last trick off, leaving an hour-plus of filler to bolster the best-selling writer’s legend via a straightforward hagiography exercise.

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Director Henrik Georgsson opens his documentary by giving a quick recap of his subject, Stieg Larsson. The author of the “Millennium” book series (which includes “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” et al), Stieg was actually more famous for his work as an anti-Nazi journalist during his lifetime. A tireless crusader against the social and political growth of right-wing extremism in Europe, Larsson literally co-wrote the book on the subject in the early-90s, and later helped to establish a magazine whose sole purpose was identifying and exposing Sweden’s Neo-Nazi cells.

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Georgsson’s film clips along at a nice pace, and does a good job outlining the growth of Larsson’s anti-Nazi ideology over the course of an entire lifetime. The documentary mixes home video footage, personal photos, dramatic recreations, and interviews with family, friends, and colleagues to paint a picture of an unquestionably driven man. A graphic artist by day, Larsson spent his nights, weekends, and holidays researching the political and financial affiliations of organizations that propagated far-right extremism. Shaken yet undeterred from years of death threats and physical violence against those near to him, Larsson pressed on with his mission when many others abandoned the cause.

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Interesting and inspiring, to be sure, the doc never really challenges any assumptions about Larsson, and doesn’t attempt to critically analyze the notable beats of this great-man narrative. After all, despite Larsson’s lifetime of work, far-right extremism has only grown in influence in Europe, begging the question of whether Stieg’s efforts might have been better served in politics or law enforcement. It’s not in any way clear that a convincing argument could be made in this regard, yet it is a question at least worth asking.

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Taking things a step further, there’s a cruel irony in the story of a man who worked so hard and honorably for so long on worthwhile social justice issues that now serve as a mere footnote to a legacy rooted in good thriller fiction. Writing the “Millennium” series seemed to have been a healthy mental exercise for Larsson, and something he worked diligently on, yet if the documentary does anything, it shows that the man’s non-fiction work was far and away the most important thing in his life. Leaving this particular stone unturned is perhaps Georgsson’s biggest failing, here, and represents a missed opportunity at tying together the public and private strands of Larsson’s life and career.

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Still, this doesn’t make “Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire” a bad documentary by any means, just an unambitious one. Larsson’s unwavering dedication to his work fighting far-right extremism is all the proof one should need to declare the man unapproachably admirable, and there’s no shortage of first-hand testimony to support just such a conclusion. A tragic figure in many ways, owing to Larsson’s untimely death and the rise of xenophobic European politics in the 21^stcentury, his story is indeed a relatively intriguing one. Had the documentary endeavored to examine Larson’s life rather than just shine a light on its accomplishments, it might have really kicked up a hornet’s nest worth of tantalizing topics worth exploring.  [B-]

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