Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
John Turturro | ... | Luzhin | |
Emily Watson | ... | Natalia | |
Geraldine James | ... | Vera | |
Stuart Wilson | ... | Valentinov | |
![]() |
Christopher Thompson | ... | Stassard |
Fabio Sartor | ... | Turati | |
Peter Blythe | ... | Ilya | |
Orla Brady | ... | Anna | |
Mark Tandy | ... | Luzhin's Father | |
Kelly Hunter | ... | Luzhin's Mother | |
![]() |
Alexander Hunting | ... | Young Luzhin |
![]() |
Alfredo Pea | ... | 1st Official |
![]() |
Fabio Pasquini | ... | 2nd Official |
![]() |
Luigi Petrucci | ... | Santucci |
![]() |
Carlo Greco | ... | Hotel Manager |
Set in the late 1920s, The Luzhin Defence tells the story of a shambling, unworldly chess Grand Master who arrives in the Italian Lakes to play the match of his life and unexpectedly finds the love of his life. Discovering his prodigious talent in boyhood overshadowed by his parents' failing marriage, Luzhin's lyrical passion for chess has become his refuge and rendered the real world a phantom. Already matched up by her family to the very suitable Comte de Stassard, when Natalia meets Luzhin, she is drawn to the erratic genius and offers him a glimpse outside of his chess obsession. But it is a world he is not equipped to deal with and his two worlds collide to tragic effect. Written by Anonymous
Albeit excellent in cinematography and actors' work, the movie stunned me by its almost complete unrelatedness to the famous (and one of the best) novel by Vladimir Nabokov. All the plot lines are put topsy-turvy, the spectacular intricacy of the plot is revealed in a straight line and all the intellectual play of Nabokov with the reader (false clues, not telling the reader the main character's first and middle name until the very last page of the novel, etc) are all gone from the film. The movie's ending is hilariously hollywoodish (and, of course, has nothing to do with the novel again). In one word, one can watch it if one hates Nabokov and has a penchant for twisted originals.