At her most distinctive in subjects drawn from her native India (SALAAM BOMBAY!/’88; MONSOON WEDDING/’01), director Mira Nair has been understandably eager, if not always successful, to take on projects off the subcontinent. Here, she more than gets away with it, handling a very traditional ‘underdog triumphs’ sports story that never feels ‘standard issue’ thanks to an unusual subject & location: Ugandan chess club in the slums. (Though it is fairly standard in how it puffs up the facts.) What makes it work is the lively feel toward visual display in color, texture & terrain Nair sees in the clothes, skin tones & even the ‘lean-to’ slum-housing in the neighborhood where young Phiona comes under the tutelage/influence of David Oyelowo, a local preacher & youth organizer who teaches chess to street kids. And it’s Oyelowo who steals whatever is left beyond the film’s look, terrific as a mentor/father-figure motivating his gang toward championships against seemingly immovable obstacles (food, clothing, cleanliness, family breakdowns, housing, snob prejudice) to meet tough uniformed, prep school types head-on. You can feel Nair & her writers skirting around a lot of unanswered issues and (perhaps?) less than spectacular tournament results, but the non-pro kid actors, warm lensing and David-and-Goliath situations mostly carry you along. And when not, Oyelowo is there to put it back on track. The sympathetic/empathetic teacher of anyone’s dreams.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Chess, math, violin, track-and-field, swimming: there's a triumph-over-adversity fable on film for just about any subject your teen might be into. This one, as uplifting & likable as they come, got lost in the commercial shuffle. Chess too a hard sell? Or was it that unhelpful title?
ATENTION MUST BE PAID: Stick around for the end credits to see the actors meet the real people they played.
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