Good biopic with some clichés (possible spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (1 November 2015)

I have to admit that if you aren't a chess player, this movie might not really interest you. While chess mastery signifies a certain level of intelligence, I concede, plenty of smart people have little to no interest in it. I think though that you don't have to be a daily chess player like myself to enjoy this movie. Biopics in general are not my favorite type of movie. Reading a good book on famous person is usually the better option. But who reads anymore, right?
I'm not going to write a mini-biography of Bobby Fischer for this review. Chances are you know he is considered one of the greatest if not the greatest chess player the world has ever known. His life was consumed by chess to a staggering degree and almost certainly his obsession was detrimental to his mental health and personal relationships. The movie chronicles his descent into what could be called paranoid schizophrenia while he also had OCD. What I came away with was the idea that he became a prisoner of his obsession with chess: its own little universe of complex calculations and theories. Throughout the movie he seemed to show little interest in any other subjects spending nearly 14 hours everyday submerged in chess. As he battled the Russian chess masters, he became increasingly afraid of being spied on and even killed. His climactic 1972 chess battles with Boris Spassky, the Russian champ, seemed to push him to the limits of his psychological endurance.
The plot follows the familiar biopic: early life and promise of great things, rise to power, series of setbacks and self doubt, triumphant return and film climax, and denouement with later life rap up. I don't really like the biographical notes at the end of a biopic because it seems slapdash and perfunctory. The actual newsreel footage of a clearly mentally unstable Bobby Fischer also seems out of place after watching Tobey Maguire inhabit the role.
Overall, the acting was good though I'm no expert on acting. The film moves along pretty well without dissolving into tedium. I didn't notice many problems on the technical end: cinematography, editing, sound, etc. The ending however, just seemed sort of a let down. Then again, real life has a way of being anti-climatic. I don't think I'm a better chess player because of this movie. That would have been nice but unlikely. Its yet another tale of a genius teetering and then presumably falling into madness. I dislike using the term cautionary tale. Few of us ever approach the level of genius Bobby had. Yet, we all can become overpowered by our obsessions whatever they might be.