GOTW: Disney Princesses
Queen of Katwe is Disney film about a poor girl who learns to play chess in the worst slum in Kampala, defeats sexist little boys and prep-school snobs, and goes on to play for the Ugandan team at the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad and win the Ugandan women's chess championship.
It debuted at the 2016 TIFF, is in theatres now, and is currently scoring 92% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes -- a review aggregator site where the number indicates what percentage of the reviews are favourable. The reviews have been positive, but not strongly so (between 72-82/100). That may be because the film invites all the terms that set film critics on edge: an "uplifting", "feel good" film that's "based on a true story" and -- worst of all? -- "from Disney". If you read those reviews, you'll find that almost all of the positive reviews start by acknowledging that the film comes with a large dollop of critic poison -- the "feel good film" stuff -- before explaining that it's a good movie anyway:
"Inspirational can be a dirty word at the movies, suggesting fake uplift and sugary excess. There's none of that in Queen of Katwe... "
- A.O.Scott, Rolling Stone
"unabashedly sentimental, but in a good way." - Rex Reed
I have a similarly silly self-inflicted aversion to saccharine, so I will succumb to the temptation to be clever and say that the reason I didn't add a SPOILER ALERT before reporting that she won the Ugandan championship is that this ending should be obvious from the moment I said it is a "Disney film". FWIW, my opinion is closer to this: "Means well, but its laborious, too-gentle pace drags it down into vegetable territory (i.e., a movie you watch because it's good for you)". - Eric D. Snider.
OTOH, vegetables are good for you.
The film is based on the 2012 book The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster, by Tim Corothers. He first wrote about it in the ESPN web article "Game of her life". That article includes a few more details about one of the key games in the movie: when the heroine, Phiona Mutesi, faces Canadian Dina Kagramanov (photo above, game at move 30) at the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad. In the film, we see Phiona worrying about whether she belongs in a world-class tournament, we see a few moves from the game – intercutting between the board and the players’ eyes -- and we see... Phiona run out into the snow, crying.
It was hard not to cheer, seeing the "nice-Canadian" cliche so thoroughly smashed by a wordless Disney villain!
But I was able to enjoy the upending of this stereotype for less than a day, when I discovered some disturbing facts about reality that the media just had to report, ruining my fantasy...
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Nice Canadian cliche coming up.
The 2011 Tim Corothers' article reports an incident which was not featured in the movie:
"Her first opponent is Dina Kagramanov, the Canadian national champion. Kagramanov, born in Baku, Azerbaijan, the hometown of former men's world champion Garry Kasparov, learned the game at age 6. She is competing in her third Olympiad and, at 24, has been playing elite chess longer than Phiona has been alive."
"...Dina Kagramanov approaches Phiona in the hotel lobby and hands her two books on advanced chess. Then, with [coach Robert] Katende interpreting, the two players break down their first-round match, Kagramanov explaining the strategy behind her own moves and asking about the decisions Phiona made instinctively." - Tim Corothers, ESPN (Jan.10, 2011)
There's a princess in that story.
And that’s our Canadian Game of the Week:
Links
"Game of her life", Tim Corothers, ESPN (Jan.10, 2011)
Google maps street view of Mutesi road (Katwe district, Kampala, Uganda)
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