A good movie

This movie was on my ‘to-watch’ list for a couple of years already and I was really glad to finally watch it. Even though I really suck balls at chess, I think it is a fascinating game, even more than poker or pool, and since I kept hearing good things about this flick (Roger Ebert really loved it for example), I was really curious about it. Eventually, to be honest, even though I enjoyed this flick, I can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing. I don’t know, it seemed as if they didn’t know what to do with the main character. Indeed, his characterization was pretty sketchy. At first, he seems barely autistic but at some other moments, he seemed like an average kid who just wanted to have fun. Eventually, you never get to know his motivations and we never learn why he plays chess or if he even likes it at all. Instead, as it seems they didn’t know what to do with this little fellow, the plot spends more time developing the adults surrounding the main character (his parents, his two mentors, the parents of his opponents, his school teacher,…). And, in my opinion, this movie is more about the impact of the young boy on his environment than about himself but that was still really interesting and there was a really solid cast (Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley, Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy, Dan Hedaya, Laura Linney). The other thing that bothered me was his ‘nemesis’. Indeed, the young boy playing Josh Waitzkin was pretty good but the other kid was really some kind of constipated drone. I know, working with kids is one of the most difficult things when making a movie but still. In spite of all this, I really enjoyed this flick, definitely. Basically, even though it is rather flawed in my opinion, it is still the best movie dealing with chess. All right, I have to confess, I haven’t sen many of those but it was really interesting and quite entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in chess.

7/10