Review: Pawn Sacrifice

 

I tend to be a little wary when I come across an Edward Zwick (“Glory”, “The Last Samurai”, “Blood Diamond”, “Love & Other Drugs”) film starring Tobey Maguire that I’ve not heard of, especially when it’s about a well-known person. It braces you for a likely disappointing mixed bag at best. This 2014 film is about troubled American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) and his rivalry with Russian world champ Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). It’s seemingly an irresistible subject for a story, yet it was quite a large financial flop and I’d never even heard of it before sitting down to watch it. Perhaps there’s not much box-office appeal in a film about a mentally unstable chess player. I’ve personally got no problem with chess being the subject of a film. To be honest though, my recommendation here will be quite a soft one because I kinda grew tired of Bobby Fischer after a while here. It’s a film about a genius arsehole to put it crudely but accurately. So perhaps people stayed away from the film because they knew more about Fischer than I did and knew what they were in store for. Still, there’s enough to like here for me to recommend it – a little softly.

 

The real Bobby Fischer looked like a cross between Bill Gates and Josh Saviano from TV’s “The Wonder Years”, so I guess Tobey Maguire isn’t a million miles from being a perfect visual stand-in here, but he’s a lot smaller than the real Fischer it has to be said. Maguire brings a similar intensity here to what he brought to his role in “Brothers”, but it’s much better suited in my opinion to this character and it’s a much more consistent performance. Even as a kid here Fischer was an intense jerk and as an adult he’s depicted as wound the hell up. This is easily Maguire’s best performance since “Wonder Boys”, his Fischer is unlikeable but for the most part he’s entertainingly so. As I said, I eventually tired of the character but for the most part I was on board (It’s especially funny to see Maguire act this obnoxiously given his own rumoured behaviour at the poker table). Fischer here is like Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network” but more aggressively obnoxious and loud.

 

Liev Schreiber makes for a fine Boris Spassky even though he looks nothing like the real man. However, this one is stolen by Michael Stuhlbarg and Peter Sarsgaard in support roles. Well-cast as a lawyer and Catholic priest/chess player respectively, they offer a nice respite from the very broad (but again, mostly entertaining) Maguire. Robin Weigert will forever be everyone’s Calamity Jane (from “Deadwood”) but she gives one of her better turns here as Bobby’s neurotic Communist mother.

 

I commend Zwick and screenwriter Steven Knight (“Allied”, “Locke”) for not over-indulging in just how over-the-top paranoid and obnoxious (and at times just plain repulsive) Bobby Fischer was, but even the film as is – and Tobey Maguire’s characterisation of Fischer – might wear you out a bit. He’s both the most entertaining and most off-putting character in the film. As such I have slightly conflicted feelings here, but it’s a pretty interesting film about an unlikeable person. I can see why some might be put off by this film and I think “Searching for Bobby Fischer” is better, but I liked a fair bit of this.   

 

Rating: B-