Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely Fantastic

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

a game. refuge, ladder, clothe. a woman. and her sense. an isle, gray family and meeting. a victory. slices of a friendship. Sandrine Bonnaire and Kevin Kline in a charming movie.a fake tale about chess. strange love story with nuances of fairy tale. or only exercise to define importance of heart for a shadow. not a great film but one like a Chopin fragment. puzzle of small and not important pieces. few drops of sentimental perfume and crumbs of ordinaries lives. some drawing of feminism and work of good cast. a movie about nothing as many others. but just emotions, fragments of images, dust of memories are important. this is chess lesson. a long and tense chess match and look of a woman as fruit of desire of a passing ghost.

What is it that makes a film jump off the screen and into the confines of your consciousness, implanting itself there so that years later, when you watch it again, you realize you have been thinking about it in the interim, with pleasure. It has insinuated itself into the fabric of your life and you carry its memory around with you.If film makers could work out how and why that happens, their investors would sleep more soundly at nightQueen to Play (Joueuse) is such a film.Obviously its success is anchored in Sandrine Bonnaire's performance, but there is a lot more to it than that, wonderful as it is.The writing. The direction. The cinematography. The other actors. Whatever...The scripting is unfailingly delightful. It presents the initial impetus to investigate the game of chess - a beautiful, young woman playing the game with her lover, as the driving force that compels the protagonist to visit her husband at work just to touch him, to extricate her silky nightgown, to acquire an electronic chess game under the guise of giving her husband a birthday gift. It then documents the discovery of meaning and satisfaction in exploiting whatever it is that makes a person excel at some aspect of life, and the coincidental growth of desire by her husband to share that life spirit - the initial impetus for all the chess playing that follows. I would say it is "nice" were it not for the devaluation of meaning of that word. Let's just call it an examination of compulsion, That's what the film is really all about. And Bonnaire's range of expressions and demeanors feed that camera with all the raw material it needs to hold us, the viewers, captive for the duration of the film. Compulsively so, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.Actually there is more to it than that. There is that exultation of the human spirit that comes from the process of self actualization. It is a wonderful experience just to observe it up close and personal by watching this film.Compulsiveness, Obsessiveness. They are not just the province of adolescent boys with computer games

An inspiring chess movie because the democratic essence of the game prevails even when overcoming such obstacles as gender and class bias. But too, the story is as much about battles of all kinds as it is about chess. We find in this film that a cleaning women's life changes because she says, "I exist, too. I have an interest. I will work at it because it matters to me." She learns, as we all do, that if you take a risk you may lose, but if you do not take risks you will lose. Beautiful and subtle, yet appropriate, soundtrack and cinematography. Dialogue simple yet profound. Acting - spot on. Again, foreign studios seem to be outclassing LA and NY - not even close. Well, OK, we have bigger CGI effects' computers and budgets.

I was curious to watch this movie based on IMDb's full storyline and Kevin Kline's participation, not to mention Sandrine Bonnaire's lead, an accomplished international actor I had not seen in a while. I knew to expect a somewhat slow pace because of the storyline; logically a slow pace was called for as this had to be a character development piece. Of course I was right; I'd skip that comment if I wasn't. There are a few other reviews of the movie preceding mine, all quite good as well; I'd encourage all to read them since I won't be covering the story as much as those reviews but rather how I feel about the experience.Bonnaire's character has an epiphany while watching Jennifer Beals enjoying a chess match with her friend /husband /lover; the alluring Beals, distracting a bit, got our heroine Bonnaire thinking. This was the beginning of Hélène's (role played by Bonnaire) emancipation and self discovery. The movie is the process of Hélène's journey. There's no real or poignant dramatic moment, it's not this movie's process. The movie is fluid; the flow is however like the smallest of stream and widest river, unstoppable.I so enjoyed Kline's acting, it is my favourite by him since Silverado(1985) and Trade(2007); considering his over forty something total movies, you can conclude his depiction of Kröger (role played by Kline) was perfect in my view. It's even a pleasure to hear his actual voice recite his dialogue in French. Well it's a French movie, in case you had not picked that up yet. His character, an expat living out what we believe to be the remainder of his life in Corsica, has for me a personal a very appealing romantic edge.Back to Bonnaire, she is believable in each and every scene; either the director was great at her job, Bonnaire is exceptionally intuitive or their collaboration was simply flawless. I'll go with a bit of each. Contextual details were not neglected; a subtle reference to the fact that women are a rarity at chess tournaments did not escape me. I know that from personal experience. The crowd 'Hélène' attracts at her tournament match final would have been gawking at a woman in real life as well. I liked this very well done and acted movie; I feel sorry so many will not see it or have what it takes to enjoy it.