SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER Directed and written by Steven Zaillian; produced by Scott Rudin and William Horberg. Starring Max Pomeranc, Joe Mantegna and Ben Kingsley. Rated PG.
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Bobby Fischer would probably like this movie. That is, if he's currently living on a planet with theaters.
Moviegoers unfamiliar with the eccentric chess champ's story get a capsule review at the beginning of Searching, with occasional pertinent supplements throughout. And they end up with a pretty good idea of what both the joys and the pressures of being a genius must be like.
But the hero of this movie isn't eccentric or reclusive. He's seven-year-old Josh (Pomeranc), a cute but thoughtful kid who wants to play second base for the Yankees. At least, until he discovers the game of chess, being played by hustlers in Washington Square.
Josh, it turns out, doesn't just like to play chess. He has a rare natural ability at the game that leads his parents (Mantegna and Joan Allen) to seek out a teacher and some stiffer competition for him.
But when does the encouragement of a gift become pressure to perform? When does the joy of playing evaporate before the fear of losing? When does the urge to be the best at one thing drive out all other interests?
These are the kinds of questions Searching poses, but, not surprisingly, never completely answers. It's a thoughtful movie, but an exciting one, too.
Its mostly deliberate pace is punctuated at satisfying intervals by bursts of "speed chess" (a whole game played in two minutes) or a flurry of moves closing out an opponent. A character that provides a lot of this energy (and I wish they'd let him do more) is Laurence Fishburne's park chess hustler.
Kingsley plays Josh's other teacher, who isn't as energetic as Fishburne, but who is just as commanding a screen presence. So is Mantegna, who wants Josh to be the best maybe a little too badly.
But Pomeranc is the real star of the show and he is perfectly cast. A highly-ranked chess player himself, he makes us believe both in Josh's genius and in his ordinary kid-ness.
Watching his quite remarkable eyes studying the board as he plans his moves in the final Big Game is every bit as exciting as the showdown in any sports movie. He may or may not be the next Bobby Fischer, but he's definitely this summer's Karate Kid.
September 8, 1993