Saturday, February 06, 2016
Chess bumps
I know nothing about chess and care less.
But today's film brings the most boring game in the world, to me, to life.
Tobey Maguire comes of age in this wonderful biopic of Bobby Fischer, the chess genius who ruled the world, then lost.
The closeups and the acting take us away from the formalities of the game and show basically a duel to the finish.
It is all touch and go until Fisher goes and takes the series of games. Unnerving the Russian Boris Spassky.
As the film points out, this was all very cold-war oriented. Propaganda.
But the players did not succumb to this on either side.
A human drama, the film is close to the faces and the board. Crowd reaction shots are not part of the drama although there are a few to keep it clear that this was a world event. But the intensity of two people at a board on a stage is kept pretty much in focus throughout. A tough job well played.
I liked the movie. I would not want to see it again. But as I have proved you do not have to know fuck all about chess to enjoy it.
A 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
