The Luzhin Defence Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)August 12th, 2001
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The Big Game - it's a cliché that's used in just about every sports flick. The best films about competition are usually about something else besides the contest, especially when they involve sports that aren't exciting enough to build an entire story around. That's the case with The Luzhin Defence, a film that, at least superficially, is about a big chess competition in 1929, but beneath the surface it tells the tale of a reclusive man coming out of his shell.
The man is Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and The Big Game is the World Chess Championships, which are being held at a ritzy hotel in Italy's Lake Como. Luzhin is an introverted Grand Master of the game who dresses sloppily and shuns contact with other humans (kind of sounds like a film critic, huh?). He also suffers from what we can assume is some form of obsessive-compulsive disorder and comes off a bit like the Rain Man of chess, carefully planning out strategies every waking moment of his day.
Enter Natalia (Emily Watson, Trixie), a young woman who just happens to be staying at the same resort that is playing host to the chess tournament. Natalia's mom (Geraldine James) is anxious to marry her daughter off and has already lined up a wonderful suitor in Comte de Stassard (Christopher Thompson). But wouldn't you know it - Natalia ends up falling in love with Luzhin. The two meet cute when she retrieves an item that has dropped through a hole in the pocket of his tattered clothes. He proposes, almost instantly, and she accepts, asking, "Would it not be appropriate to know my name first?" So you know her mom has got to be thrilled.
As the film progresses, we learn more and more about Luzhin, like that he was a child prodigy who was managed by a man who now coaches his most capable competitor. We see clunky flashbacks to his mop-topped youth - his parents fought and he was afraid of school, so little Luzhin poured all of his energy into the piano and, before you know it, he's playing Rach III on stage in front of...wait. Wrong movie. I meant chess. He pours his energy into chess. Seriously, though, Luzhin is more than a little similar to Shine. They share the same narrative structure, and there's even a tub scene (Luzhin doesn't poop in the water, though). Like David Helfgott, Luzhin doesn't so much fall in love with Natalia as latch on to her.
Turturro does well, making a potentially unlikable character pretty sympathetic to the viewer. Like Enemy at the Gates, Luzhin is another film where all of the Russian characters speak with English accents. In addition to Turturro's standout performance, Luzhin also features a lovely score (Alexandre Desplat) and pretty cinematography (Bernard Lutic, I Dreamed of Africa).
Luzhin was directed by Marleen Gorris (Mrs. Dalloway) and adapted from Vladimir Nabokov's novel by Peter Berry. Nabakov based Luzhin's character on real-life chess Grand Master Curt von Bardeleben, who checked out in a manner similar to Luzhin. You know with a Nabokov story you're going to get obsession that turns into tragedy, and Luzhin doesn't do anything to make you think otherwise. It's a simple, predictable story, and its chess scenes aren't nearly as dazzling as Searching for Bobby Fischer, but Luzhin is still moderately entertaining.
1:46 - PG-13 for some sensuality and thematic elements
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