✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, Germany · 2009
1h 37m
Director Caroline Bottaro
Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Valérie Lagrange, Francis Renaud
Genre Comedy, Drama
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In a small Corsican village, devoted mother and housekeeper Hélène lacks passion in her life. After stumbling upon an American couple playing chess, she becomes inspired to learn herself with the help of her American expat tutor, Dr. Kröger, a liaison that dramatically transforms both of their lackluster lives.
Relaxed and goofy in "Dave," "A Fish Called Wanda" and a host of other comedies, Kevin Kline has an endearing way of subverting his own grandee impulses when he's being funny. Give the actor a dramatic role, though, and he comes on all Shakespeare in the Park.
The supporting cast is uniformly fine, but the film rests on the delicate shoulders of Bonnaire, who carries it with a soulful, magnetic presence.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
That the film works to the degree that it does is largely due to the sensitive performances. Bonnaire delivers a beautifully modulated turn.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
Kline, who has done a lot of chewy character roles after several stage triumphs, is as sly and leonine as ever. His performance here obliterates that phony accent he used in "French Kiss."
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
It's the best kind of unforced filmmaking, able to make its points with delicacy and tact. And the best thing about it is that it is Bottaro's feature directing debut. We have a lot to look forward to.
Queen To Play is ultimately about people's capacity for emotional and intellectual growth at any age.
Queen to Play does slightly buck convention by depicting intellectual development (rather than lovey-dovey triumph) as the key to reshaping identity, as well as a form of class advancement and spiritual enlightenment. Such notions, however, are drowned out by deafeningly creaky conventions of cutesy self-discovery.
Queen To Play has a winning heroine, who fantasizes about being special and then works hard to make it happen. Too bad the rest of the movie is so common.
Like Sebastian Silva's "The Maid," Queen posits a radically different approach to class and gender empowerment.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
In small but significant ways, Queen to Play defies expectations. It dangles the possibility of an affair between Hélène and Kröger in games that the film likens to courtship rituals in a classic screwball comedy.
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