Quite Engaging

Rating: 7/10 (28 January 2016)

This is based upon a true story. Chess Prodigy Bobby Fischer (Toby Mcguire) becomes a household name during the Cold War years as he believes he is the best chess player in the world and his goal is to beat the Russian champion Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). He is somewhat paranoid believing he is being spied on by both governments: Russia and the United States.
When a movie comes out and claims to be a true story we really don't know all the facts. Such is the case here. Let's say we get a smattering of the truth and this is contrasted between what we knew from the newspapers and TV broadcasts had we lived during those 1970s Cold War years . And if not, there is always Wikipedia to fill in some blanks.
A chess match between Fischer and Spassky was considered to be the Super Bowl of chess. The whole world was interested. What intrigues us mostly are the rules or boundaries that Fischer demands before he sits with Spassky. Will he get away with his demands? Will he show up if his demands are not met? How does Spassky feel about these distractions? We see Fischer beat many worthy opponents, but the goal is always Spassky.
What we are drawn to are facial expressions of everyone in the movie, but in particular: Fischer and we cannot look away. These facial expressions are the pull in this story. That and his rebellion against almost everything and it is what keeps us engaged. Is he genius or just mad? You decide. Fischer's behavior can be traced back to childhood when his anti-war mother probably instilled in him that no one can be trusted. (you're just saying, right?)
Looking for bugs we often see Fischer rip up just about everything in his rooms and one would think that someone would ask him, "how many bugs have you found?" Never happened. (that we know of)
As we go along we see 2-friends try to help Fischer to be more reasonable. We see lawyer Paul Marshall (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Father Bill Lombardy (Peter Sarsgaard) fail at almost every attempt. Nothing they do gets through to Bobby Fischer.
In 2011 there was a documentary: Bobby Fischer Against the World and that should have been the title for this movie or something akin as the one we have now is too passive. Fischer's struggles were against the world as this movie shows. See?
Soooo who won the big match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky? I believe it's your move. (7/10)
Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: one F-bomb in the beginning. Rating: B