# Luzhin Defence, The (2000)

### reviewed by
SSG Syndicate

X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Summary: r.a.m.r. #28300 Keywords: author=granger Subject: Review: The Luzhin Defense (2001) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Organization: None Author: Ssg722@aol.com (SSG Syndicate)

    http://www.susangranger.com/

Susan Granger's review of "THE LUZHIN DEFENSE" (Sony Pictures Classics)

It's all about chess and madness, set in 1929 in the Lake Como region of Northern Italy, where the World Chess Championship is underway. The now-grown Russian prodigy Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro) is the favorite, and his mind is totally focused on winning - until he encounters a lovely Russian Emigre, Natalia Katkov (Emily Watson), whose mother is determined to marry her off to the French nobleman Jean de Stassard (Christopher Thompson), a chess enthusiast who's come to watch the tournament. Socially inexperienced and inept, Luzhin proposes marriage and, surprisingly, she accepts. But there's opposition in the form of Luzhin's former manager, Valentinov (Stuart Wilson), who is determined to see him lose. The suspense intensifies as the contest comes down to Luzhin and Turati (Fabio Sartor), the Italian Grand Master. Under intense mental pressure and becoming increasingly unstable, the obsessed Luzhin devises a brilliant set of moves, which come to be known as the Luzhin Defense. Checkmate!

From the nicotine stains on his fingertips to his disheveled clothes and clipped, mono-syllabic speech, John Turturro is a superb actor but he goes overboard in demented eccentricity, muttering to himself and spinning circles in the rain, while Emily Watson exudes the required propriety and nurturing instincts. Based on "The Defense" by Vladimir Nabokov, adapted by Peter Berry and directed with a heavy-hand by Marleen Gorris ("Antonia's Line," "Mrs. Dalloway"), it's as slow and ponderous as the game it depicts, soon the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Luzhin Defense" is a sedate, simplistic, even dispiriting 5. If you're intrigued by chess, I recommend renting "Searching for Bobby Fischer" (1993), a far superior film.

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews