QUEEN OF KATWE – Review

So, what studio is bringing sports fans and movie goers together? None other than the “house of mouse”, the Disney studios! Multiplexes have been bombarded by their releases this year, many from their “specialty subdivisions” like Disney/Pixar (FINDING DORY) and Disney/Marvel (CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR) with a potential blockbuster from Disney/Lucasfilm (ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY) arriving in a couple of months. They’ve still got the Touchstone Pictures imprint for the more adult-subject films, while the Walt Disney Studios imprint has mainly been used for their non-Emoryville-made animated features like FROZEN and this year’s ZOOTOPIA, JUNGLE BOOK, and PETE’S DRAGON. But over the last decade or so, after snapping up the ESPN basic cable TV channel, they’ve been releasing several true-life sports stories squarely aimed at family audiences, usually rated PG. Two years ago it was the baseball saga MILLION DOLLAR ARM, last year, the track and field tale MCFARLAND USA. And now the sport getting their cinema treatment is…chess?! Oh, it is a sport! Why the screenplay is adapted from an article in ESPN’s magazine (later expanded to a book). And while the other sports flicks were primarily set in the states, this time the audiences is transported thousands of miles across the globe, to the African continent in order to meet the QUEEN OF KATWE.

After a brief tournament sequence in 2011, the film quickly jumps back to 2007 and the impoverished, crowded slum section of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda. There a young widow, Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o) who struggles to provide a home for her four children. Since school uniforms are beyond their meager means, all (except the toddler, Robert) spend the day selling ears of corn on the busy streets. This is also the story of Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), a man seeking employment as an engineering supervisor who, in order to provide for his wife and baby, works with the soccer coach at a local school (and steps in as a ringer in matches for a few bucks). Robert tries to convince school officials to establish a chess club. When this falls on deaf ears, he sets up his own , after school in an empty dwelling. One day, Nakku’s youngest daughter Phiona Matesi (Madina Nalwanga), curious over his activities, follows her younger brother through the streets and into Robert’s chess club. Though the mostly male members complain about her presence, Robert introduces her to the game. Phiona is a natural, a chess savant, and defeats all the others there. When Nakku discovers her children’s involvement, she threatens to make them leave, thinking this club is a “front” for gambling. Robert convinces her of their good intentions and gets her permission to take them to a competition. Over the next few years he becomes her mentor, helping Phiona achieve the goal of international chess master, bringing fame to their homeland while pulling the family out of poverty.

Though the film’s title refers to the young chess prodigy, the story’s real power comes from the powerful performance of Nyong’o as the family’s unflinching steel-like backbone. Nakku is a true lioness, a force of nature protecting her offspring with her last breath. In her first live action screen role since her Oscar win (NON-STOP came out within days of the ceremony), Nyong’o delivers equally astounding work in a role so different from that 1800’s heroine. Even as life deals her another blow, Nakku holds her head high, inspiring her children, only expressing doubt or sorrow over the sudden loss of her husband during her brief solitary moments. When her eldest daughter is tempted by the flash of a young hustler, Nakku leaps into action, becoming a stone-eyed sentry. In one memorable scene, it appears that she has given up and decides to get a “sugar daddy”, instead she uses her charms to sell a treasured bit of fabric. It’s a delicate dance, executed expertly by one of cinema’s most engaging talents. Almost matching her in passion and determination is the terrific Oyelowo as the coach and surrogate father to his ragtag group of young minds and hearts. Like Nakku, he will not let them be swallowed up by the savage streets. But Robert has his own family, and in the scenes with his wife and baby, Oyelowo shows the tenderness of a man hoping for a better tomorrow especially in the flirtatious conversations with his wife. Now as for the title character, Nalwanga, in her screen debut, gives a nuanced performance as the budding chess master, showing us a child whose spirit is deadened by drudgery, suddenly finding joy in a new skill set, an unforseen talent. There’s also the usual troubled teenage problems as she must deal with sudden success (she feels entitled, sleeping late and neglecting her chores) and the inevitable “agony of defeat”. Far from a one-note heroic ideal, Nalwangas makes Phiona a truly three-dimensional person.

Acclaimed director (her career now spans four decades) Mira Nair does an admirable job of making the cerebral game cinematic, knowing when to stay on the board and when to cut away to the concentrating player and the “holding their breath” audience. She lets the story flow naturally at a tranquil pace, though the opening scene “flash forward” may have given away too much. Despite its PG rating, Nair never shies away from showing the squalor of Phiona’s surroundings, nor the danger. Whether it’s the eldest daughter being lured into the fast lane, or a frightening flash flood that nearly takes young Richard (the stuff of nightmares), nothing here is “sugar-coated”. But there are moments of levity as screenwriter William Wheeler mines laughs with the underdog street urchins facing off against the privileged “city boys” and the “fish-out-of-water” gags as the team is flown to other countries (airline food! hotel rooms!). It’s an inspiring saga, for sure, but aside from the domestic scenes with Nakku and Robert, it never really surprises and often feels like we’re marking time till the “feel good” return home in triumph. Mixing elements of PAWN SACRIFICE with SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, QUEEN OF KATWE is an often effective, unusual sports story that young chess enthusiasts may enjoy. Yes, the queen is good, but her mother really delivers the drama’s “checkmate”!
3.5 out of 5