There are Three Things at Play in this Film.
1. Genius-Mental Illness Link
2. The Cold War
3. World Championship Chess
The Movie, Unfortunately, does not Enlighten or Inform on Any of These Things. It just Shows them on the Screen. It's Superficial and Exploitative using the aforementioned as nothing more than Filling Space like a Cable News Channel with Talking Heads and Fancy Pictorials, that are Entertaining to a Point but Pointless in the Big Picture.
Pick 1 of those 3, Any 1, and Do Something with it, Anything.
Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky go through the "Talking Points" of the Script with Professionalism and bring Their Acting Chops to the Proceedings and Proceed to Project Clichés and Go through Meaningless Moves, as does the Writer and Director. But the Underlying Motivations behind the Three Parts of the Story are Virtually Absent.
All of this is Nothing more than a Pedestrian Picture with very Little Interest and very little Heart other than Regurgitating Headlines and Culling Pop Chart Timelines.
A Major Disappointment, Uninspired, and Mundane Movie Making reduced to Claptrap.
1. Genius-Mental Illness Link
2. The Cold War
3. World Championship Chess
The Movie, Unfortunately, does not Enlighten or Inform on Any of These Things. It just Shows them on the Screen. It's Superficial and Exploitative using the aforementioned as nothing more than Filling Space like a Cable News Channel with Talking Heads and Fancy Pictorials, that are Entertaining to a Point but Pointless in the Big Picture.
Pick 1 of those 3, Any 1, and Do Something with it, Anything.
Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky go through the "Talking Points" of the Script with Professionalism and bring Their Acting Chops to the Proceedings and Proceed to Project Clichés and Go through Meaningless Moves, as does the Writer and Director. But the Underlying Motivations behind the Three Parts of the Story are Virtually Absent.
All of this is Nothing more than a Pedestrian Picture with very Little Interest and very little Heart other than Regurgitating Headlines and Culling Pop Chart Timelines.
A Major Disappointment, Uninspired, and Mundane Movie Making reduced to Claptrap.