clevelander

The director of this melodrama displays the customary tenuous grasp on how chess is played, and the mawkish sentimentality found in many an old school film. The actors do well to deliver the corny lines and represent the saintly kids of the Bronx.

Unfortunately I teach chess to kids in a school, voluntarily and not as part of any job, as do many chess teachers: and know that chess is the great underdog of the educational world. Hey, I'd be over the moon if some individual ever bunged in a quid or fiver to support the chess, never mind a few thousand dollars. So this film had me weeping uncontrollably all the way through, and I'd watch it again just to get in touch my emotions.

Kids, don't bang down on those clocks you'll break them, and Ted, don't swish the pieces at the and of the games, that would be the chess equivalent of spiking the football at the end of the game. OK, its only a film...sob, sob.

Put together the worlds best actors with an Oscar winning director and what do you get? Probably worst film any of them have ever been in. Struggling for an explanation, I hone in on the awful wooden screenplay. But that's too generous. The director must get the blame for totally failing to bring out the talents of the normally skillful cast. Mason makes a go of it, apart from the unconvincing accent, but Helen Mirren appears woefully miscast as a downtrodden local girl with natural beauty and personality that is supposed to inspire the artist. She does not demonstrate enough rough edges to be believable. Helen Mirren has just stepped out of the Royal Shakespeare Company (as the cast credits insists on reminding us) and the director should have realised that, and demanded more of the actors. Mind you, I don't recall her ever playing this type of role again.

If you were looking for an evening in (or out) watching a romcom (and don't we all feel that that sometimes), choose this one above some of the more well known and popular examples. It's well-crafted and tries hard to avoid many of the well-known clichés. Plenty of twist and turns: sentimentality, yes, but not laid on with a table-knife rather than a trowel. Admittedly not quite Harry met Sally or Annie Hall, as, though competently acted, the characters are still romcom cyphers. But marvel at the script-writers' solid achievement of entertainment and engagement. Competent production values keep it rolling along to the last second, without padding. If it had just added those witty little touches of human observation that characterise a great movie it might have made it into my "8" rating, reserved for films that have something outstanding.