Early in Queen of Katwe, chess teacher Robert Katende notes that his young prodigy Phiona Mutesi can see eight moves ahead.
It is a remarkable visual, as Phiona halts their game in order to play out the next eight moves of their match culminating in the inevitable checkmate. There is an elegance to the movements, the choreography of the pieces moving across the board, and Mutesi intuitively understands not only where her pieces should go, but where her opponent’s pieces will go. This ability to predict the flow of a particular game, the narrative that it will chart, is the key to Phiona’s future and her best chance of getting out of the Katwe slums.
In some ways, this sequence feels like something of a commentary on the film itself. The true story of Phiona Mutesi is truly remarkable, serving as an archetypal underdog story about a young girl from the Ugandan slums who went on to become one of the best chess players in the world. Queen of Katwe unfolds rather like that chess game, a series of moves and counter-moves that any savvy audience member will recognise beat-for-beat as the narrative of this sort of tale. Queen of Katwe holds very few surprises in terms of story.
And yet, in spite of that, there is something truly remarkable in watching that story play out, just as there is something striking in watching those pieces of wood move across the board. Queen of Katwe is a beautiful and joyous piece of film, a very old story that is very well-told, anchored in three fantastic central performances and some great direction from Mira Nair.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, Movie, non-review review, queen of katwe, review | 4 Comments »
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