Stieg Larsson: documentary offers closer look

Baltimoreans can get a closer look at the legacy of Stieg Larsson, who has captivated millions with a Swedish crime trilogy that began with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." As Baltimore Sun movie critic Michael Sragoiw notes, the Charles Theatre is offering free showings of "Millennium: The Story," a 52-minute French documentary about Larsson's thrillers. The film, which Sragow calls "rough-hewn" and "oddly charming," plays at 7 p.m. Monday and July 12 at the Charles, which has been showing the "Dragon Tattoo" movie for weeks.

Sragow says of the promotional tool: "With its serious-minded narrator speaking semi-broken English ... this film is heartening in several ways. It portrays readers walking the streets of Stockholm to see locations referenced in the books and to absorb what Larsson loved and hated about Sweden before he died of a coronary thrombosis at age 50, nine months before his first novel's publication.

"The documentary depicts Larsson as a fearless journalist and fiction writer who believed you couldn't 'wear a mask' when fighting racism, anti-Semitism and violence against women."

The other books in Larsson's series are "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," one of this summer's hottest reads.