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Searching for Bobby Fischer

1993

Steven Zaillian

Max Pomeranc, Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley ...

6.8

8,391

Drama Josh (Max Pomeranc) is a "regular kid" who begins evincing signs of being a genius at chess. His father (Joe Mantegna) encourages this, hoping that it won't fundamentally change his son's healthy outlook on life. But Josh is taken under the wing of cold-blooded chess instructor Bruce Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley), who indoctrinates the boy in the "Bobby Fischer" strategy. Unfortunately, Pandolfini emphasizes all of Fischer's negative ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"Wonderful (...) A film of remarkable sensitivity and insight (...) The film is the first intelligent one I can remember seeing about chess (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"[Zaillian] turns Josh’s story into a riveting screen adventure"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"It makes for a good old-fashioned inspirational story, absorbing and pointed."	POS
United States	Rita Kempley The Washington Post	"'Searching for Bobby Fischer' does for chess what 'The Karate Kid' did for martial arts, albeit with considerably more complexity and class"	POS
United States	Variety	"'Searching' is at its best when exploring the tension between wanting to develop a child’s abilities and allowing him to remain a child. Unfortunately (...) [Zaillian] also feels compelled to throw in Karate Kid-type flourishes"	NEU
United States	Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"The most impressive and promising of directing debuts (...) A film that is a beautifully calibrated model of honestly sentimental filmmaking, made with delicacy, restraint and unmistakable emotional power"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly	"A wonderful movie, a delicate and touching drama that takes us deep inside the eccentric competitive mystique of grandmaster chess"	POS

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