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THE LUZHIN DEFENSE Send This Review to a Friend
For me one of the highlights of the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival was "The Luzhin Defense," a film by Marleen Gorris that features yet another fine performance by John Turturro, as well as further evidence of why Emily Watson is such an appealing and fascinating actress. The subject itself is potent--the toll taken on a man brought up from childhood to become a chess champion and what happens when there's an opening in his constricted world.
Set in the late 1920s, the story is scripted by Peter Berry from a book by celebrated writer Vladimir Nabokov. Alexander Luzhin (Turturro) arrives at a Northern Italian lake resort, where an all-important chess match will be held. Luzhin carries enormous emotional baggage from his childhood--the failure of the marriage of his parents, rejection by his aunt, who introduced him to chess, and a childhood of exploitation as a result of his talent. He is a brilliant player, but a repository of all the repression he has suffered.
The catalyst for a breakout arrives in the presence of Emily Watson as Natalia, an aristocratic Russian woman whose parents want her to be married to their choice, a count.
But Natalia, with a mind of her own, becomes attracted to Luzhin and an unlikely romance quickly blossoms, much to the chagrin of her mother Vera (Geraldine James). In the midst of the developing tension, Valentinov (Stuart Wilson), who had once been Luzhin's mentor but abandoned him, shows up and has his own agenda tied to the weakness of his former protégé and he knows how to exploit it.
Contributing importantly to the film's overall atmosphere is the locale, with use of the Villa Erba in Cernobbio, along Lake Como. Anyone who has been to the region will delight in watching the film on that score alone. Other location work was done in Bergamo, Italy, and in Budapest, which became a stand-in for St. Petersburg. The entire film has a special air, and the Turturro-Watson performances are not to be missed. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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