Terrific Tobey

Rating: 7/10 (10 December 2015)

A magnificent, barnstorming performance from Tobey Maguire is the mainstay of this interesting movie about chess champion Bobby Fischer. Maguire's technique runs the gamut, from tiny eye movements to full-scale harangues, from the subtlest of gestures to the wildest.He builds Bobby on a bedrock of self-confidence while also managing to suggest that same confidence is a massive defence against vulnerability. The film makes a parallel between Fischer's paranoia and that of America in the Cold War, but what could merely have been an idea is made vivid by Maguire's stupendous acting.
He is very well supported by Michael Stulhbarg, Peter Sarsgaard and Liev Schreiber. Women don't get much of a look-in, unfortunately, but of the three who emerge from the male fog Robin Weigert makes a strong impression as Fischer's beleaguered mother.
Edward Zwick keeps the pace going admirably, aided by Steven Rosenblum's deft editing. I'm less sure about the overall look of the film, and uneasy about its shift to a finale of patriotic triumphalism that it had managed so hard to avoid - even to the extent of satire - up to that point.
Unmissable for Maguire.