Juego a muerte

Knight Moves starts as a clever movie about a murder investigation over some "Zodiac" wannabe. It's one of those movies where you'll only get your answers at the end-ish.

"End-ish" because, as the movie goes on, it seems like they couldn't keep up with their complicated murder plot, so they pretty much simplify things out.

In the end, an abrupt ending and a bunch of weird fight scenes sour out the movie.

Knight Moves is a film of/for fruitcakes....a little too complicated to be called a Madeira, but heavy enough to take away the hunger pangs. It manages to convey the horror of death without any real murder sequences being shown and is rather Hitchcockesque in places.

The story centres around chess player Peter Sanderson (Christophe Lambert) and his (possible) involvement in a string of serial killings. Due to his complete absorption in the game, he has already lost his wife and is now in danger of losing his daughter. Although he is the prime suspect, he becomes involved with a psychologist called in by the Police. This role was picked up by Christophe's (then) wife, Diane Lane, who not only coped well with the character, but also with a well-rehearsed bedroom scene. A case of 'truth being stranger than fiction'?

Like many of Christophe's films, this one relies heavily on explaining the psychology of the killer, even if it is only in laymen's terms; but it does deal with complex issues of responsibility and duress. The photography is a juxtaposition of European noir sur blanc and British thriller, with a little American 'home-grown' logic thrown in for good effect. Tom Skerritt is disappointing as the chief of police, a role that he plays woodenly. He is upstaged by his sidekick (Daniel Baldwin). Jeremy is portrayed by Ferdinand Mayne, an actor well known to film-going audiences, with over 120 roles to his credit before his death in 1998.

Although this film was not initially well received, its continued presence on the 'Pick of the week' shelf at the video store proves that it may well become a 'cult' film. It is often in the top-100-rentals slot in many countries and it seems to appeal to a diverse range of people. While some of the supporting cast need acting lessons, its camera work and well co-ordinated plot make this an original and enjoyable 'who-dunnit'...and you really will be guessing to the end.

Peter Sanderson is a chess master in town for a major tournament. After visiting her and having sex with her, Sanderson's casual lover is murdered and left in a strange pose. The police suspect him as the person who was with her moments before her death but things are confused when Sanderson is contacted by the killer wishing to play a game with him. The murders continue as Sanderson and the police try to outsmart the killer – however clues still indicate that Sanderson could still be a suspect himself.

There are very few thrillers that would chose to set themselves in the world of grandmaster chess as the basis for their plot, and even fewer that would manage to pull it off convincingly; this film falls into the former but not the latter. The plot only really uses chess as the background so that it can make a rather tenuous link between that game and the game that is played between Sanderson and the killer. This basic plot is interesting enough even if it doesn't really stand out from the basic video-thriller genre that the chess connection suggests it is better than. The chess connection doesn't really work as it doesn't actually fit in with the murders very well – feeling forced quite a lot; certainly the whole chess championship is just a side issue and the film never manages to actually convince that this is a battle of wits, in fact the police do most of the leg work and Peter only occasionally blurts out the odd 'Eureka in the bathtub' line.

The solution is semi-clever in that I realized that the film had tricked me from the first scene onwards, but, despite this fact, the identity of the killer is as out-of-the-blue and you would expect it to be. The film is littered with minor characters who jump out of shadows, appear at suspicious times or say menacing things under their breath, all red herrings of course but most of them are not explained and it is obvious the writer never thought about whether or not they made sense in any context other than them being red herrings. Having said that, the film is enjoyable but mainly as a genre film rather than anything clever or particularly inventive. The lack of a really clever cat'n'mouse game was a letdown for me because of the potential that the chess connection had suggested.

The cast are a fairly average mix that contribute to the feeling that this is a genre film rather than anything particularly clever. Lambert has had a very mixed career and this is just another strange role that he doesn't play that well – certainly the words 'Lambert' and 'chess master' are words that words that don't seem to naturally appear together. Sticking with the clichés of both the genre and Lambert films, we get the obligatory love scene (twice!) that have little relevance but gives the film the added selling point of breasts! Skerrit and Baldwin are better than the rest of the cast even with poor characters – the two of them control each scene they are in and make the film feel better than it is.

Overall, the title and background suggest a clever game of wits between a chess master and the killer but it doesn't manage to be anything more than an OK genre film. The twist is out of the blue as always but getting there is quite fun and the end result is a film that is enjoyable but quite unspectacular.

KNIGHT MOVES

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Sound format: Dolby Stereo

Filmed on grim Canadian locations by German director Carl Schenkel (OUT OF ORDER), this curious psycho-thriller has the look and feel of an Italian giallo, despite the American setting. All the elements are in place: Christopher Lambert plays a chess grandmaster targeted by a serial killer who leaves obscure one-word messages at the scene of his/her crimes, hoping to draw Lambert into a lethal game of cat and mouse. That the murders are based on well-known chess manoeuvres should come as no surprise to seasoned thriller addicts, and nor should the killer's identity, which is betrayed by a seemingly throwaway bit of business near the beginning of the film (not a spoiler - only the truly attentive will spot it). Brad Mirman's convoluted script bends over backwards to cast suspicion on Lambert throughout (which means it *can't* be him - or can it?), but the narrative is undermined by some poorly-drawn characters, and everyone but Tom Skerritt - as the detective leading the investigation - seems to be coasting through proceedings on auto-pilot. The murders aren't explicitly detailed, and Schenkel goes out of his way to avoid crowd-pleasing exploitation, which rather curbs the film's commercial emphasis. But at least it's never dull, and the climax is reasonably proficient, complete with overwrought thunderstorm and psycho with a mommy complex! Daniel Baldwin exaggerates wildly as a macho cop determined to nail Lambert for the crimes, while Ferdinand Mayne hovers in the background, making the most of a glorified cameo as the hero's blind mentor.

Christopher Lambert stars as Peter Sanderson a master chess player who is targeted by a serial killer who is killing women and blaming it on Sanderson, Captain Frank Stedman(Tom Skerritt) and Detective Andy Wagner believe that Sanderson is behind it all, while a Dr.Kathy Shepperd unwisely falls for Sanderson in this entertaining yet confusing thriller. The ending while a good twist, is somewhat disappointing. However Knight Moves works fairly well most of the time.