![queen of katwe 2016 queen of katwe 2016](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/i/5a344cbd-f1b5-47c1-b639-2e2a5fbd2efe/dauny0a-0e5dbb28-9803-4418-98bc-7355bc96e043.jpg)
(The book, by Tim Crothers, is also called The Queen of Katwe, but according to Nair the movie isn’t adapted from the book.) Third, Christian faith is a notable part of Phiona’s story, which first circulated in a church magazine and went on to appear in ESPN magazine before becoming an acclaimed book. Second, it’s set in Africa, and there are no white characters (and also, Nair has quipped, no animals). Phiona’s story certainly deserves to be told, but it’s not necessarily the sort of story you expect from Disney, for at least three reasons.įirst, chess doesn’t lend itself to popular moviemaking. I have to think Queen of Katwe will delight practically everyone who sees it.Īctually, the reasons the film shouldn’t exist start with the improbability of an illiterate girl from the Katwe slum being exposed to chess in the first place, let alone beginning to find her way to prestigious tournaments and winning games against privileged students from elite schools.
![queen of katwe 2016 queen of katwe 2016](https://sanet.pics/storage-3/0717/sZHd2CQFFnnyK1jG8imDSZGGGGL53iUv.jpg)
Few people really liked Independence Day: Resurgence, but they watched it anyway. But I regretted my decision halfway through the flight.Those who do see Queen of Katwe, though, will experience something moving and enriching in a way that has become rare in Hollywood studio fare. Sometimes, you have to work and earn a living. No, I did not watch Queen of Katwe a third time on my flight home. In fact, I watched the film all over again and this time really let loose. So I didn’t get to watch the climax and aforementioned closing title sequence until I got to my hotel room and found the film on iTunes, sparing him the hysterical, sobbing puddle I happily became at movie’s end. Our plane landed twenty minutes before the end of Queen of Katwe. The man sitting next to me on my flight lucked out.
![queen of katwe 2016 queen of katwe 2016](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lupita_2.png)
It can’t possibly be the result of performance, which only makes the appearance of the actual people who inspired this movie, standing alongside and hugging their onscreen counterparts, generate a flood of emotions you don’t normally experience while watching film credits. At times, you forget this isn’t cinema verité. Nair’s most impressive gift, however, is her enviable eye for creating cinematic landscapes that vibrate with documentary-like clarity. Queen of Katwe is yet another color-drenched gem directed by the respected but underrated Mira Nair, who has highlighted in her previous films, M onsoon Wedding, The Namesake and Salaam Bombay! the majesty to be found in small gestures, the dignity that makes the most meager chore bearable, and the necessity of unshakeable belief. And finally, when Phiona ultimately embraces the nurturing and knowledge her teacher has selflessly offered her (though it’s obviously impossible to resist David Oyelowo, who is rapidly achieving Sidney Poitier saint-like stature as Goodness made mortal), and heads for both her destiny and a way out of poverty, your seatbelt is all that may keep you from standing up, cheering with the rapture of the recently baptized acolyte. Then, as Phiona’s mother, played by a radiantly defiant Lupita Nyong’o, recognizing and accepting her daughter’s potential, allows herself the luxury of hope, it will get increasingly hard to suppress the urge to sniff and sob. So consuming and fraught with consequence is the tale of Phiona Mutesi, an impoverished Ugandan girl’s prejudicially judged, class and scholastically challenged-and initially parentally road-blocked journey to chess grand master status-you are in grave danger of becoming the person you dread sitting next to on a flight.īecause as you follow the luminous Madina Malwanga’s portrayal of Phiona learning to handle both skill and setback, be prepared to release several involuntary gasps and the occasional pinched wince. Be careful not to mistake the pounding of your heart into your headphones for turbulence. Warning to anyone choosing to watch this movie on a flight as I did: Forget your meal, or disconnecting to go to the bathroom.