A Little Game

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source: A Little Game

First a warning! Some people in High School or shortly thereafter will hate this movie. If you are in that group you have just been warned. DON'T WATCH IT! After thousands of movies crop up that I can watch and don't because they are rated R or even worse PG-13 and should have been rated R I get very few movies that I can watch. This movie is not one of those movies. Yes, I do like Ford v Ferarri but for different reasons. A Little Game which is rated just. PG is in a different class. I hope you get the version where the smart-ass girl from the privileged school draws the correct response when she tells Norman Wallach he does not understand Russian. There is more than just one standard version of the movie. I have watched the movie multiple times. It always brings a smile to my face. There are advantages to being both Screen Writer and Director for Evan Oppenheimer. The movie is incorrect at several points on Chess alone so please don't use the movie as a primer in Chess. If you do, you will be badly beaten sooner or later and it will most likely be sooner. Just take the movie as fun entertainment and roll with the punches. It is good for both older and some much younger people and will put a smile on quite a few faces. I especially liked the final scene which didn't show until after the credits began to roll. Yes, that is a warning to watch the movie all the way through.

In1962 my Father had the notion to place me in a private school. His intentions were good as he wanted me to have the best education possible. What parent wouldn't? Struggling financially, he asked his Uncle Max for financial help and Max complied but under certain conditions. It has to be a Jewish school. Unfortunately, I was not a good student with behavioral issues plus a lack of attentiveness was a recipe for disaster. I had no knowledge of Jewish customs and practices. My mother was proud of being Jewish but knew nothing about her religion. I invited a classmate to the house after school. When my Mother had us in the kitchen to eat a snack. The boy was shocked as he noticed that my mother didn't have two sets of dishes rendering our kitchen not kosher. He called his mother to come to the house and get him out of this gentile home. A Little Game is a refreshing change of pace being hidden amongst the sex, violence-oriented movies. Max Kuftinec (Makenna Ballard) is tops in her class at her local New York City public school. She is a young pre-teen, cute with a thirst for knowledge. In addition, her friends gravitate around as seen in the opening playground scene. All seems right until her teacher called her over and says to the effect that she is going to miss her. When Max comes home her parents Tom (Ralph Macchio) and Sarah (Janeane Garofalo). They realize that Max would be better suited to a private school where she could be more challenged. Her parents take a financial risk as Sarah is a gourmet chef and requests more shifts to pay the huge tuition. Tom is a maintenance man for the apartment they reside which saves on rent payments. Other supporting characters are her loving Greek Grandmother YaYa (Olympia Dukakis) who she admires for her wisdom. Then there is her younger adorable sister Jez (Fina Strazza) with a wild imagination who for example turns her babysitter into a human closet draping clothes on each arm (Quite a site). Max finds herself in unchartered waters in her new surroundings at the private school. Already the upper westside snooty girls are teasing her about her old shoes. Max is basically alone in her new environment. In order to find new friends, she joins the school's chess club. Not knowing anything about chess, Max is ostracized by her snobbish classmate Isabella (Fatima Ptacek). Max retorts and tells her that someday she will beat her in a chess match. The real magic of this film takes place in Washington Square Park at the chess tables. Where a venerable gentleman is sitting. Max seems to gravitate towards this person. This is the hook for me personally as the dialogue between the two holds your interest. The screenwriting between a ten-year-old inquisitive youngster against the well-seasoned curmudgeon. F. Murray Abraham known as Norman in the film transcends this tale in a different but positive direction. Max Learns about chess and how life constantly changes through the subtle hints Norman provides giving Max a different perspective on the game. Some critics scoff at the film complaining that Garofalo, and Abraham, were not showcased more or to even appear in a children's film of this nature. Truthfully I personally was totally satisfied with the entire movie and was hoping that there would be a spinoff series. The casting was sheer perfection. Other notable players in the movie worth a mention were the bespectacled Becky (Oona Laurence) and her enterprising male friend Jaden (Gabriel Rush). A wonderful family film.

My perspective for full disclosure: I'm a NYC native who learned how the pieces move from my older brother in 1968 at age 6, improved my understanding of the game during the Fischer boom, and was a below-master level tournament player until I was 30. So I am familiar with the territory and wanted this to be good. I totally get that this was made for an audience of children, so we need not have great expectations of it. The problem is writer/director Evan Oppenheimer is obviously enthralled by the metaphor of learning to navigate the chess board as a cognate of learning to navigate life itself; yet his portrayal of the games, and the teaching process of park hustler Abraham, suggests strongly he has never played the game himself, has little to no understanding of it, and did not bother to ask anyone qualified for help in that area. If his goal was to introduce a childhood audience to a beautiful strategy game, he wound up giving most of them at once both an overly simplistic and overly complicated, and ultimately just unrealistic idea of what playing and learning the game is really like. If his goal was something else entirely, he did not need to butcher the presentation of chess as a vehicle for whatever that goal may have been. If you're looking for a good (and far closer to realistic because it was a true story, written by someone who lived it) movie about a child chess prodigy, see "Searching for Bobby Fischer" instead. The talents of Abraham, Dukakis and Garofalo were badly wasted on this silly script. At least new star Makenna Ballard made an auspicious debut as the protagonist, outshining the established adult actors.

First of all it is a disgrace that her credit is so far down on IMDB's list of actors for this movie. She is the main character, not some side character. Hers should be the first credit listed. But other than this and an obscure TV movie that I can't find anywhere, she only has two credits to her name. Does anyone know why? She was outstanding in this sweet little movie. She could express different emotions just with slight changes of facial expressions. I was expecting to see more from her, as she proved to be an excellent actress in this movie. She should have had a long, successful career ahead of her in films. I hope nothing bad happened to her. Anyway, if you get a chance, see this movie. It is uplifting, but not overly saccharine. Even an old gruff guy like me enjoyed this fine film immensely.