That father-and-son stuff is all very well, but would it have hurt to have made a film that was ALSO about chess? What we have here is a film that requires a knowledge of the game, but does nothing to reward a knowledge of the game. It might as well be about baseball.
What a journalist would call the "human interest" part of the story is quite thin; Zaillian takes FOREVER to get to the point, and it's not much of a point. There's some excitement towards the end, but not enough. The only thing that lifts the film above the level of "dull and irritating" to "mildly diverting" is Ben Kingsley, who plays his character with class, and provides us with our only window outside the stifling world of child-rearing manuals.
What does everyone SEE in this?
What a journalist would call the "human interest" part of the story is quite thin; Zaillian takes FOREVER to get to the point, and it's not much of a point. There's some excitement towards the end, but not enough. The only thing that lifts the film above the level of "dull and irritating" to "mildly diverting" is Ben Kingsley, who plays his character with class, and provides us with our only window outside the stifling world of child-rearing manuals.
What does everyone SEE in this?