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The picture often has the flashy moves of a chess patzer. Phone books are smashed and chessmen trashed. Josh plays catch in a sepulchral chess club, inhabited by a veritable cuckoo's nest of chess nuts. The movie also distorts the chess education of this bantam Rocky. It has Josh learning almost equally from Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley) and a kindly street hustler (Laurence Fishburne). In fact, Pandolfini was the boy's main teacher. Kingsley does have a charismatic gravity and the carriage of -- Fred Waitzkin's phrase -- "a ruined aristocrat." In portraying a teacher whom Josh refers to as "a great friend, a wonderful man," Kingsley also has a touch of the bullying pedant in him, a dab of Wackford Squeers. "I was just never that mean," says Pandolfini, a famous soft touch. "I hope not, anyhow."
For love and money -- unlike their European counterparts, American chess players rarely make a living from the game -- Pandolfini agreed to be an adviser on the film. He showed actors how to grab the chess pieces ("There is a certain elegance to it," he says) and devised some 200 chess positions. For him, "The film isn't so much about trying to find the next Bobby Fischer; it is about trying to find those good times that came upon Fischer's success in 1972, when chess was suddenly important to the American public."
The film may indeed rekindle that fervor. In its gaudy way, it could also remind audiences of important issues rarely addressed in movies: the estrangement of genius ("He is better at this," says Joe Mantegna as Fred, "than I've ever been at anything in my life"), the sick thrill of competition (a lesser player stares at Josh with craven awe) and the romance of failure. "Maybe it's better not to be the best," Josh says as the competition heats up; "then you can lose and it's O.K."The movie's subject is unusual, but its themes are universal: a child's discovery of what makes him special and a parent's loving possessiveness.
First Fred Waitzkin had to accustom himself to his son's brilliance. Now he must prepare for cinematic notoriety. "I hope there isn't upheaval," he says. "I like our lives." And Josh? He likes his life a lot these days, and being a movie star once removed isn't the reason. "I never understood the beauty of chess," he says. "But about two years ago, I discovered the artistic, creative side of chess, and that has given me added inspiration. I tell you, I never had such enthusiasm as I do now." Let's hope this wise child never grows up.