実在の天才少年チェスプレイヤーのジョシュ・ウェイツキンの父親フレッドが、ジョシュの生活を綴った本の映画化。ジョシュはまだ7歳という年齢ながら、チェスに関して天才的才能を持っていた。父フレッドは息子の秀でた才能を、かつてチェスで世界に名を馳せたアメリカ人天才プレーヤー、ボビー・フィッシャーに重ね合わせ本格的な英才教育を試みる。そして、彼は往年の名プレーヤー、ブルースに会い息子のコーチに雇う。ジョシュは特訓によって更に潜在していた能力を発揮、次々とタイトルを獲得した。だがある日、ジョシュの前に思わぬ強敵ジョナサンが現われる。
製作費: $12,000,000 (18億円)
興行収入: $7,266,383 (11億円)
推定収支: $-4,733,617 (-7億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: スティーヴン・ザイリアン
脚本: スティーヴン・ザイリアン / Fred Waitzkin
音楽: ジェームズ・ホーナー
制作: シドニー・ポラック / William Horberg / スコット・ルーディン
撮影監督: コンラッド・L・ホール
制作会社: Mirage Enterprises / Scott Rudin Productions / Paramount Pictures
**The intricate world of chess, in the shadow of one of its most controversial masters.** There is, in the world of sport – and for all intents and purposes, competitive chess turns out to be like a sport – a certain obsession with the stars, and their replacement when they go away. This is perhaps most visible in football: Messi has often been described as the new Maradona, to give you an example of what I'm talking about. This film follows a bit of the same logic: after having a chess grand master who won an important world tournament against the unbeatable Russians (and in the middle of the Cold War), the film takes us to the world of junior chess, following the steps of a young prodigy who could eventually be the “successor” to that famous player, Bobby Fisher. Little note: being a genius doesn't mean being a good person or a person you'll like. Bobby Fisher is already dead, and he died relatively young, but he guided his public life and his career by unpredictable behavior, enormous eccentricity and statements to journalists that are controversial, to say the least. He held quite radical world views, he was, it seems, anti-Semitic and a Holocaust denier. Fisher's statements about the US, his home country – which he left many years ago – are truly incendiary and critical. All it takes is a little internet research to verify this. I don't know how popular chess is nowadays, but here in Portugal it is common and very popular at school level, more as a recreational activity, not as a competition. I remember, in my school days, leaving the classroom and spending almost every break playing chess against my friends. And we took the game seriously, with pleasure and enthusiasm. We were aware of the complexity of the game, but we never worried about being ferociously good, just having fun. But I think anyone who knows how to play chess understands how challenging a game it can be. The film has an excellent cast. Max Pomeranc, despite being very young, is a likeable protagonist who seems torn between genius and normality. It makes him approachable and gives him a fascinating weakness for someone so obviously smart, and the young actor had the ability to understand the character in this way, and balance himself in this rich personality. Next to us, we have two great actors – Ben Kingsley and Joe Mantegna – who give us very successful jobs. For me, this film is one of Mantegna's best. Joan Allen also does a satisfying but less interesting job, and Laurence Fishburne could have been better used. Steven Zaillian had the brains to give us a film filled with intellect, intelligence and good feelings. The script is well written, and the dialogues are quite good. The choice of filming locations, sets and costumes, all help to build a familiar, friendly, very elegant film. There are no great effects, the film doesn't require them, but there is an effective soundtrack, very discreet, and reasonably well done cinematography.
