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The Luzhin Defence

2001, Movie, PG-13, 106 mins

The Luzhin Defence: Review

LUZHIN DEFENCE, THE | LUZHIN DEFENSE, THE

A headstrong heiress, an unstable chess master and an all-important tournament in an Italian resort town form the center of this oddly bloodless film — simultaneously a romance, a psychological thriller, a parable of addiction, a celebration of eccentricity and a heartfelt condemnation of bourgeois intolerance. It's hard to imagine Vladimir Nabokov, from whose novel The Defense (1930) it's adapted, writing anything so schematic and naive; his slippery brilliance is notor... read more leave a comment