Category : Various Text files
Archive   : SUN9309.ZIP
Filename : MOV3

Searching For Bobby Fisher Movie Review
Copyright (c) 1993, Bruce Diamond
All rights reserved



ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER: Written and directed by ³
³ Steven Zaillian. Based on the book by Fred Waitzkin. ³
³ Stars Joe Mantegna, Laurence Fishburne, Joan Allen, Max ³
³ Pomeranc, and Ben Kingsley. Paramount Pictures. ³
³ Rated PG. ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER is the most gripping movie about
chess I've ever seen. Yes, that's right, it's a chess movie, but
just as FIELD OF DREAMS was a baseball movie that was more than a
baseball movie, so is SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER a chess movie
that isn't just a chess movie. It's a story about dedication,
art, synthesis, and life. It's a movie that'll stir your
emotions without ignoring your mind. It's a movie that'll
definitely be remembered on critics' year-end lists and at next
year's Academy Awards. And it's a movie with mass appeal, not an
art house film that only the intelligentsia and critics who want
to impress people praise. It's really that good, and you really
will be entertained.

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER is the true-life story of Josh
Waitzkin (played with perfect intensity by Max Pomeranc, who is a
top-ranked chess player), caught between his love for speed
chess, his stern by-the-book teacher, and the need for his
father's love. Josh is a natural, teaching himself chess from
watching the speed chess players in Washington Square Park,
especially one player named Vinnie (Larry Fishburne), who recog-
nizes the same creative spark in Josh that Bobby Fisher, the U.S.
and world champ who disappeared mysteriously in the mid- '70s,
once displayed. Other players in the park call Josh the young
Bobby Fisher when he begins playing there on a regular basis.
Even Bruce Pandolfino (Ben Kingsley, in a moving performance
that's sure to be ranked as one of his best), who becomes Josh's
teacher, says to the boy's father (Joe Mantegna), "He creates
like Fisher." Fisher raised the game from a science to an art,
he explains, and no one's been able to duplicate that feat since.

Until, that is, Josh Waitzkin begins playing.

He demonstrates his talent to his father in one of the
movie's most delightful sequences -- Josh plays with his sister,
eats dinner, takes a phonecall, and takes a bath, all between
moves. When his father announces it's Josh's turn, Josh runs
into the room, moves a piece, and rushes back out, leaving his
father to take another 20 minutes to make his own move. Mantegna
plays the perplexed scenes so well you know his frustration --
and his growing awe of his on screen son. He tells Josh's
elementary school teacher in one scene, "He's better at this than
I'll ever be at anything!" It's through this same scene we at
once discover the depth of Josh's fixation, *and* the even
greater depth of his father's obsession that Josh become the best
there ever was at the game of chess.

Director/screenwriter Steven Zaillian has taken a different
approach with SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER, one necessitated by the
intimacy of the game, of the story the camera is capturing, and
by the location (Toronto substitutes for Chicago for most of the
film), and his artistic choice raises the film to another level.
Without this intimacy, we wouldn't feel Josh's fascination for
the game, his father's burning desire for Josh's success, and
Pandolfino's duality as demanding taskmaster and competitive
coward. At least, we wouldn't feel it as intensely as Zaillian
intended.

And when Josh meets up with another chess powerhouse his own
age, we're right on the edge of giving up with him. Until, that
is, the new fire hits him again in the park, which is where the
lighting and the camera shots opens up from close intimacy to
world-engulfing optimism -- but only for a moment. The climax at
a state chess championship is as gripping and heartwarming as
anything you're going to see for months.

The first unqualified rave of the summer. Isn't that enough
to make you see SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER? It oughta be.

RATING: 10 out of 10.