La ambición de Marie

When Marie (Sarah Lafaurie), an aspiring French chess master who has met with mixed career success, is approached by a mysterious stranger (Eugenio Barona) with a dubious proposal to up her game, she’s simultaneously intrigued and perplexed. The shadowy figure, who claims to represent an antidoping organization that investigates the use of illicit substances, practices and techniques in the world of sports, says he’s anxious to determine if it’s possible to employ a clandestine enhancement method for significantly improving one’s chess skills, and he wants to know if Marie wants to give it a try to see if it works. Given that chess is one sport in which doping has not been an issue (largely because it’s believed it wouldn’t have any appreciable impact), Marie wonders about the value of such a dubious undertaking. At the same time, though, given her ambition to rise to prominence in the sport, she agrees to the idea. But little does she – or the mystery man – know what’s about to unfold. To be honest, though, it’s not hard to figure out what’s actually transpiring in director Manu Fernández’s Faustian tale, although the particulars of how its plot developments come to pass seem a bit … odd … and somewhat underexplained. In light of that, then, this project probably would have worked better as either a longer short or even a feature-length piece with greater elaboration. As it stands now, however, “La Ambición de Marie” feels somewhat undercooked and in need of further detail to make its moves clearer and more engaging.