The Luzhin Defence

The Luzhin Defence 2000

• Director: Marleen Gorris
• Seen by this director: Antonia’s World, Mrs Dalloway
• Based on the book by: Vladimir Nabokov
• Cast: John Turturro, Emily Watson, Geraldine James, Kelly Hunter
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• John Turturro – God’s Pocket, The Miracle at St Ana’s, Margo at the Wedding, Romance & Cigarettes, Secret Window, The Man Who Cried, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Cradle Will Rock, The Big Lebowski, Clockers, Barton Fink, Jungle Fever, Miller’s Crossing, Mo’ Better Blues, Do the Right Thing, Desperately Seeking Susan
• Emily Watson – Testament of Youth, The Theory of Everything, The Book Thief, The Politician’s Husband, Fireflies in the Garden, Wah-Wah, Punch Drunk Love, Gosford Park, Cradle Will Rock, Hilary and Jackie, The Boxer, Breaking the Waves
• Geraldine James – Rogue One, Alice in Wonderland, Robot Overlords, Utopia, Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Made in Dagenham, Sherlock Holmes, Calendar Girls, TV series
• Kelly Hunter – Doctor Who, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Les Misérables
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 4 August 2022      

       Natalia (Watson) is in Italy with her mother (James) at the same time as the World Chess Championship is taking place. She meets the master Luzhin (Turtorro). They’re both Russian émigrés. He’s a mad genius, she’s a beautiful but bookish society lady. Within days he proposes, and she accepts.

       I’m sorry, it’s putting me to sleep.

       Many IMDb viewers are lyrical, loving it passionately. A few seem to hate it. I’m somewhere in between. I have several problems with it. Love stories bore me and this one isn’t even convincing. Rich Russian émigrés swanning around the palaces of Europe in the 1920s bore me. Watching chess bores me. Snobbish antisemitic aristocratic mothers bore me. Mad Luzhin and stalwart Natalia bore me.

       Nope. Not for me. 

2* of 5