Searching for Bobby Fischer is a movie that has the ingredients for an absolutely amazing, unforgettable classic of a movie, but falls short in almost every category.
TL;DR - The movie is worth a watch. Helps if you are interested in chess, but this movie lacks focus and explanation of all the characters. This movie could easily have been 3 hours and be amazing if well explained and in depth.
The story is built up ok, but it tries too hard to sell itself with this entire Bobby Fischer agenda but it really doesn't have a real affect on the plot. You could take out any mention of Bobby Fischer and the movie would be the same.
There's also the relationship between the main character Josh and his father Fred. It keeps hinting that the relationship is good, but at the same time bad, but at no point do we get something really good and wholesome and at no point do we get anything really bad - its just all very mellow. This may be realistic, but for a movie it's a bit lackluster.
Then we have the "teacher" Bruce, played by Ben Kingsley. We get the feeling he doesn't want to teach in the beginning of the movie, but we get no reasoning why. There's no great plot twist that suddenly shows some cool backstory - and again its all just very shallow and lackluster.
We also have a Karen of a school teacher that we meet very shortly and we have some cool exchanges with Josh's father and and one of the other fathers played by William H. Macy - again these interactions and clash of ideas and personalities are great, but too short, shallow and lackluster. Little to no explanation and almost no character development.
I could keep going through almost every character in the movie and bottom line is that I think this movie tries to approach too many angles. If it had just focused on fx. Ben Kingsley's past and maybe Josh's fathers interactions and character development with the other chess kids fathers then it would have been simpler and better, but instead we try to get all these other characters that are somewhat interesting but never truly are explained.
Its a shame, but with that being said I still think its a movie worth watching - but I really truly believe this movie could've been a 10/10.
TL;DR - The movie is worth a watch. Helps if you are interested in chess, but this movie lacks focus and explanation of all the characters. This movie could easily have been 3 hours and be amazing if well explained and in depth.
The story is built up ok, but it tries too hard to sell itself with this entire Bobby Fischer agenda but it really doesn't have a real affect on the plot. You could take out any mention of Bobby Fischer and the movie would be the same.
There's also the relationship between the main character Josh and his father Fred. It keeps hinting that the relationship is good, but at the same time bad, but at no point do we get something really good and wholesome and at no point do we get anything really bad - its just all very mellow. This may be realistic, but for a movie it's a bit lackluster.
Then we have the "teacher" Bruce, played by Ben Kingsley. We get the feeling he doesn't want to teach in the beginning of the movie, but we get no reasoning why. There's no great plot twist that suddenly shows some cool backstory - and again its all just very shallow and lackluster.
We also have a Karen of a school teacher that we meet very shortly and we have some cool exchanges with Josh's father and and one of the other fathers played by William H. Macy - again these interactions and clash of ideas and personalities are great, but too short, shallow and lackluster. Little to no explanation and almost no character development.
I could keep going through almost every character in the movie and bottom line is that I think this movie tries to approach too many angles. If it had just focused on fx. Ben Kingsley's past and maybe Josh's fathers interactions and character development with the other chess kids fathers then it would have been simpler and better, but instead we try to get all these other characters that are somewhat interesting but never truly are explained.
Its a shame, but with that being said I still think its a movie worth watching - but I really truly believe this movie could've been a 10/10.