Director: Edward Zwick Starring: Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard, Liev Schreiber, Robin Weigert, Lily Rabe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Nélisse Writer: Steven Knight | 3/5 Pawn Sacrifice Hollywood must be contractually obliged to pump out x amount of troubled-genius biopics every year. They must be alluring to filmmakers and actors, who are almost guaranteed an Oscar win (Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything) or a nomination (Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game). Though I think Tobey Maguire is a lovely actor, I do not think his turn as chess prodigy Bobby Fischer will end up on the final nominees list. Everything about Pawn Sacrifice simply plays it too safe, from Maguire’s sturdy-but-overreaching performance to Edward Zwick’s sturdy-but-emotionless direction. Before you take a trip to New Orleans - that’s you local readers - to see it, let us take a deeper look. Like most tortured genius stories, Pawn Sacrifice begins by giving us a brief glimpse at its climax - here, it’s when Bobby (Tobey Maguire) refused to attend Game 2 at the Iceland-hosted World Championship. After that, we cut to a young Robert Fischer surrounded by people and circumstances that will stay with him for the rest of his life. A shady looking man photographs him from the road. The man is keeping an eye on his Communist-sympathizing mother (Robin Weigert), but from then on, Bobby is in a constant state of paranoia. As he rises to national fame as a chess sensation, Bobby routinely goes through each hotel and destroys their phones searching for bugs. That’s the “tortured” part of this his genius: as depicted by Zwick, he has REALLY good hearing, which causes him to get super paranoid and intolerant. |
If Zwick did not want to go down that route (which would have been totally fine, seeing as how just about every tortured-genius biopic does), he could have given his film an emotional edge. Again, Pawn Sacrifice comes up short. Fischer’s Commie mother Regina runs off early in the film, and even if that is what she did in real life, it still does not make for emotional viewing. The only other strong female character, his sister Joan, is treated with similar carelessness, shown occasionally looking sad and then cheering him on in another scene as she watches the televised tournament.
So why should you care anything about this movie? There are actually a few reasons. For one, the third act is spectacularly paced, rigged in just the right way to conjure up as much excitement as possible for a televised chess game. It may seem dull, but seeing Bobby and the reigning world champion Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan) spar off, intimidating each other with increasingly loony antics, is worth the price of admission alone. The performances are also all rock solid, even if none of them warrant Oscar noms. Peter Sarsgaard plays a priest friend in perpetual conflict: encourage his friend’s antics and see the best chess ever played or urge him to get help.
Final verdict: there will be better films this year, probably even better tortured-genius films. If money is tight, I would not drive all the way the nearest city to see it. However, if you are in the neighborhood, check it out. The pro’s are many and you will learn the story of a truly fascinating man. What do you have to lose?