Synopsis
Based upon the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, a chess grandmaster travels to Italy in the 1920s to play in a tournament and falls in love.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- John TurturroAleksandr Ivanovich 'Sascha' Luzhin
- Emily WatsonNatalia Katkov
- Geraldine JamesVera, Natalia's Mother
- Stuart WilsonValentionov
- Fabio SartorTurati
- Peter BlytheIlya
- Orla BradyAnna
- Mark TandyLuzhin's Father
- Kelly HunterLuzhin's Mother
- Antonio CarliFascist
Recommendations
- 91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
I can't think of another movie that more fluently communicates the special agony and ecstasy of the game of chess. - 75
Boston Globe
Watson's character grows in importance until she eclipses the recessive Luzhin. - 75
Chicago Tribune
You'll find heartbreakingly star-crossed lovers, a heartless villain (Wilson) and a dazzling backdrop of aristocratic life before and after the Russian Revolution. - 70
Film.com
Gorris has beefed up the role of Natalia (Watson), with the end result that the film's emphasis is appropriately divided between the two characters in an emotionally satisfying way. - 63
Baltimore Sun
Handsome and well-acted, yet it can't hold a pawn to Nabokov's harrowing and moving character study. - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
The film is elegiac and sad, beautifully mounted, but not as compelling as it should be. - 60
Wall Street Journal
An attractive, intelligent film that's intractably at odds with itself. - 60
New Times (L.A.)
In the end, it demonstrates all over again the virtual impossibility of doing Nabokov justice on film, because his work is so resolutely and brilliantly made of words.
