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The Luzhin Defence

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United Kingdom, France · 2000
Rated PG-13 · 1h 49m
Director Marleen Gorris
Starring John Turturro, Emily Watson, Geraldine James, Stuart Wilson
Genre Drama, Romance

Discovering his prodigious talent in boyhood, Luzhin's passion for chess has become his refuge. Already matched up by her family to the very suitable Comte de Stassard, when Natalia meets Luzhin, she is drawn to his genius and offers him a glimpse outside of his chess obsession. However, it is a world he is not equipped to deal with...

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What are critics saying?

60

New Times (L.A.) by Bill Gallo

In the end, it demonstrates all over again the virtual impossibility of doing Nabokov justice on film, because his work is so resolutely and brilliantly made of words.

50

San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham

When the film sticks with the eccentric comedy of a highborn woman attracted to a preoccupied genius, it works splendidly. When it strays into melodrama, it is as ill-equipped as Luzhin.

75

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

You'll find heartbreakingly star-crossed lovers, a heartless villain (Wilson) and a dazzling backdrop of aristocratic life before and after the Russian Revolution.

70

Film.com by Peter Brunette

Gorris has beefed up the role of Natalia (Watson), with the end result that the film's emphasis is appropriately divided between the two characters in an emotionally satisfying way.

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