SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER
A film review by Jon A. Webb
Copyright 1993 Jon A. Webb
This is the story of the discovery of a ten-year old chess genius, and the conflicts between the intense study and concentration needed to reach the highest ranks of chess and the more prosaic pursuits of a young boy.
I thought the tension between chess and normal family life was a little overplayed. After all, this movie would not have been made if the father or teacher had been successful in pushing the boy to be obsessed about chess only, so why create a dramatic conflict over whether they will be able to do this? The conflict over the boy's playing speed chess in the park seems a little silly, too. But it's interesting how it all gets turned into chess, to the boy "bringing his queen out too early". And the fight between our hero and the "evil chess robot child" is not believable or interesting.
But the movie is rescued by the sweet and compelling performance of Max Pomeranc, as the young Josh Fisher. He's such a nice boy, you want to see him succeed.
There's a level of chess that was alluded to in interviews I've seen about this film, which is based on a true story: the level at which chess is a complete psychological conflict. I suppose this is the heart of this film, but it doesn't really come across, though perhaps it could not, in a film based on child actors.
Joe Manetegna plays the father: I wish he'd stick to roles where he can show more anguish. Browbeating ten-year olds just doesn't make it. Ben Kingsley is the teacher, and he is adequate if a little too Gandhi-esque to be believably pushy. Laurence Fishburn is the speed-chess playing counterweight to Kingsley; I liked his performance.
-- J
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews