PAWN SACRIFICE
Directed by Edward Zwick
Screenplay by Steven Knight; Stephen J Rivele; and Christopher Wilkinson
Starring Tobey McGuire; Live Schreiber; and Peter Saarsgard
Set during the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer (McGuire) finds himself caught between two superpowers and his own struggles as he challenges the Soviet Chess Champion (Schreiber).
Hmmmmmm. A film about playing chess. Okay. Sounds boring. However it puts the chess game right into the middle of a tense time and place. This makes the chess game more stressful and it worked.
Other than the chess match, I really did not care about Bobby Fischer. Yes, he clearly and sadly had mental issues, it seems to be paranoia and over the top obsessive compulsive behavior. Still it went ignored by all around him because he was thrown into, or threw himself into the middle of political situation. This makes it difficult to watch. Fischer is so unlikable it makes the film feel .....trying to find the right word...ugly I guess. Yes Fischer had many a mental issue, and those issues are going unchecked, so I can only go with who he is in the film and that is....a jerk with a huge ego. And again it makes the film very agitating.
Positives? The acting was spot on. Schreiber, as the Russian champ, and Saarsgard as an almost handler of Fischer were really good in their roles playing off the paranoid McGuire in a real soft calming way.
During the credits, sadly you see the Bobby Fisher never really changed or got help for his many issues. It is just an unlikable film 2 stars out of 5.
As always from the shadows thanks for your time.
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