Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993)

Some of the best movies are ones that become so familiar to us that small moments are the ones that bring us back. There is a moment in "Searching for Bobby Fischer" that always grabs me. The film's protagonist (Josh, a 7 year old chess prodigy) has made a hasty move in an important chess match. Josh has had two main influences in his chess career: 1) Vinnie (Laurence Fishburne) a streetwise speed chess player who Josh begins challenging in Washington Square, and 2) Bruce (Ben Kingsley), a professional chess player who Josh's father (Joe Mantegna) hires to teach his son the finer points of the game. Bruce looks down upon Vinnie's influence, but Josh's mother (Joan Allen) knows that her son loves playing with Vinnie, and she doesn't want him to stop loving the game. Late in the film, both of these mentors are with Josh at a crucial match when Josh makes the hasty move I mentioned above. When Josh makes the move, Bruce exclaims his disapproval and begins pacing. At the same time, Vinnie proclaims "Josh is setting him up...I taught him that." It is a wonderful moment of yin and yang in the film. However, the moment I love is moments later. Josh makes an important move that turns the tide of the game. When he makes the move, no one but Vinnie is watching, because the father and teacher had written him off. As Vinnie sees the move Josh makes, he points at the viewing screen and proclaims, "THERE IT IS", and the game is afoot once again.

I don't know how many times Stephanie and I have watched this movie. I wrote an entry found here a couple of months ago of movies my wife and I can watch over and over. How I forgot to include this one is beyond me. It is brilliant on every level. The cast is astonishing. The setting is wonderfully evocative. The family lives in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and it adds so much texture to the story. Finally, the story itself is rich. It follows a chess prodigy and his family as they navigate through the challenges of having such a talented young boy in the family. As his talent is discovered, Josh's father has to struggle with projecting his own ambitions onto his son, and Josh's mother struggles to maintain a nurturing environment for their son. At times the father goes overboard. There is a very uncomfortable scene wherein Josh's teacher (a young Laura Linney) expresses concern to Josh's parents about the amount of school Josh is missing due to his being in competitive chess tournaments. Josh's father becomes highly defensive to her criticism, and it takes more pointed persuasion from his wife to ask himself what his priorities indeed are. Herein lies the movie's genius. It allows the father to be human, to make mistakes, but also to learn from them. The father senses that his son has a unique gift, and he drives his son because of that. But he finds it a struggle to walk the line between challenging his son and forgetting that his son has to be an individual. A lesser film would see a father who is merciless in his drive, or one who gives up any ambition whatsoever. This film has the courage to allow the father to learn and to let the father's love for his son grow deeper.

One of the marks of a brilliant film is the fact that there could be a movie made about each of its characters because the characters are so well realized. We sense that about the two main characters outside the family, VInnie and Bruce. The film could have made Vinnie a stereotypical street dweller, but instead it shows a man who truly cares for this boy, and recognizes his talent and love for the game. The film also could have been content to let Bruce be a typical taskmaster who has no heart. He goes too far in the film in driving the boy, but by its end, he shows himself to be a man who has been touched by this remarkable boy. Both of these characters are multidimensional. They never act outside of their character, but they both grow as people, and we love watching that.

In the center of it all is the remarkable boy. The young actor (Max Pomeranc) is wonderful, and he creates a sympathetic character. The boy is afraid of losing his father's love, but he never loses his own sense of decency. Clearly, his parents have given him a moral compass, and he never wanders from that. My older son is almost Max's age. He has begun playing the cello. This movie offers helpful insight into what a parent should do with a child and an endeavor such as music or sports. We see the challenges of the parents in the movie and we identify. We see the obsession of some parents and we cringe. But how many of us, as parents, would do anything for our children? And how many of us have the courage to say that we shouldn't do absolutely anything for our children? This movie sheds great insight into what can happen when parents lose control of their ambitions for their children, and what can happen when a parent learns to scale back that drive. If you have never seen it, put it in the Netflix queue...you won't be disappointed.