A Little Game

My perspective for full disclosure: I'm a NYC native who learned how the pieces move from my older brother in 1968 at age 6, improved my understanding of the game during the Fischer boom, and was a below-master level tournament player until I was 30. So I am familiar with the territory and wanted this to be good.

I totally get that this was made for an audience of children, so we need not have great expectations of it. The problem is writer/director Evan Oppenheimer is obviously enthralled by the metaphor of learning to navigate the chess board as a cognate of learning to navigate life itself; yet his portrayal of the games, and the teaching process of park hustler Abraham, suggests strongly he has never played the game himself, has little to no understanding of it, and did not bother to ask anyone qualified for help in that area. If his goal was to introduce a childhood audience to a beautiful strategy game, he wound up giving most of them at once both an overly simplistic and overly complicated, and ultimately just unrealistic idea of what playing and learning the game is really like. If his goal was something else entirely, he did not need to butcher the presentation of chess as a vehicle for whatever that goal may have been. If you're looking for a good (and far closer to realistic because it was a true story, written by someone who lived it) movie about a child chess prodigy, see "Searching for Bobby Fischer" instead.

The talents of Abraham, Dukakis and Garofalo were badly wasted on this silly script. At least new star Makenna Ballard made an auspicious debut as the protagonist, outshining the established adult actors.

A Little Game is nice, family-friendly (for the most part) movie with quality acting. The young stage actress, Makenna Ballard makes her big screen debut as Max, a 10-year-old Manhattenite. Olympia Dukakis as her "Ya-Ya" and F.Murray Abraham as her reluctant mentor. I watched it with my own 10-year-old who was engaged watching Max maneuver school, family, and life in general. From a mom's perspective, I thought the movie delivered a wonderful glimpse of the world through a young girl's eyes which, realistically, would include the fantasies playing out in her mind. From a Christian perspective, I was taken by surprise by a scene in which the parents share a beer. This doesn't offend me; I'm just not used to seeing casual alcohol use in a family movie. Also, there is a very brief - almost subversive - mention of the neighbor boy's two moms, as well as a cutaway of Max picturing herself with two dads. Though a common theme today, I thought it should be mentioned for families that prefer to filter worldly ideals. Overall, the importance of family, friendship, and love was portrayed stronger than anything else.

First of all it is a disgrace that her credit is so far down on IMDB's list of actors for this movie. She is the main character, not some side character. Hers should be the first credit listed.

But other than this and an obscure TV movie that I can't find anywhere, she only has two credits to her name. Does anyone know why?

She was outstanding in this sweet little movie. She could express different emotions just with slight changes of facial expressions. I was expecting to see more from her, as she proved to be an excellent actress in this movie. She should have had a long, successful career ahead of her in films. I hope nothing bad happened to her.

Anyway, if you get a chance, see this movie. It is uplifting, but not overly saccharine. Even an old gruff guy like me enjoyed this fine film immensely.

Definitely a must watch movie

It's a great movie because and it could really happen in real life. The story encourages girls to take chances and be themselves. It's cool to be smart and make mistakes. What I really liked about this movie is that Max was was a smart girl and everyone else had nannies but she could ride the subway by herself. Her family split up and her grandmother died but she lived through it and was brave to try something new but not forget the old.

It's a family movie, and a great movie to watch with kids at movie night. Must watch at least one time .

Definitely Recommended: Rated : 10/10.

My 4 year old son loved this movie so much, he wanted to learn how to play chess because of it! It captured his attention, as it was the first full length movie that held his attention from beginning to end. He now plays chess...at four! In addition, the way the main character carried herself and responded to opposition, meanness and being different was a good example for my son to see. The story was heart-warming, innocent and fun. It's a wonderful family movie. Disappointed to see IMDb relegate the main character to the 19th spot on their listing of characters (even after the bully of the movie). Shame on you. You should revise that IMDb. Makenna Ballard did a wonderful job and deserves the credit for her work. We loved this movie!