Pawn Sacrifice

Parental Rating: PG-13

Contains: Language    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens September 18, 2015

Runs 114 minutes

Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) grew up in Brooklyn, raised to be paranoid from an early age as his mother Regina (Robin Weigert) held secret Communist Party meetings in their home. As he began to show signs of being a chess prodigy, he was introduced to Carmine Nigro (Conrad Pla), a ranked chess player himself, who worked with Bobby. Bobby's skill grew along with his mental illness, alhough that aspect of his life was largely overlooked due to his talent. Eventually, Bobby's dream was to challenge the Russians. During the height of the Cold War, Bobby traveled to Iceland to face the great Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). He felt the weight of the contest as USA vs USSR, Bobby vs Boris. His paranoia was also pronounced and he even forfeited game 2 of the tournament because he felt he was being watched. He tore his room apart searching for bugs and made demands that were to be followed if he were to continue in the tournament. Eventually, he did return to finish the tournament and made fans of chess players and non-players alike.

This is a pretty good movie. During the Cold War, Bobby Fischer was considered a celebrity in the United States who set out to beat the big, bad Russians at their game. The film builds tension and makes chess interesting and suspenseful. It also does a good job of reflecting Bobby's mental illness that went hand-in-hand with his genius. Tobey Maguire is great as Bobby and Liev Schreiber is fascinating as Boris, speaking only in Russian. This is a story that I knew a little about but I definitely didn't know the whole story. This movie is worth seeing.

Movie Search

Find a movie by name, genre, or ranking.