In the broad outlines of its narrative, Queen of Katwe looks like standard inspirational
based-on-a-true-story Hollywood product. But what elevates the material here is
a warm specificity and gentle, humane subtlety. It tells the story of a girl
growing up in extreme poverty in Katwe, Uganda. She doesn’t attend school. Her
widowed mother and three siblings scrape by selling cheap corn in the crowded
marketplace. Hunger and the constant looming threat of eviction are
ever-present concerns. One day she discovers a kind man running a program where
he offers porridge and chess lessons to local kids. Food and fun draw her in,
but passion for the game soon consumes her. She dreams of becoming a Grandmaster.
The more she plays, the more she practices, the more it seems like this is a
dream within reach, if only she can make it past the societal, economic, and
structural impediments standing between a poor African girl and the world
stage.
Director Mira Nair takes this terrific story and imbues it
with a closely attuned sense of place and space, both in the details of the
character’s lives and situations, and in the way their environment and
experiences inform their worldviews. Nair is always a quiet, precise observer
of humanity. Her works about culture clashes (like Mississippi Masala) and immigrants (The Namesake), rituals (Monsoon
Wedding), radicalization (The
Reluctant Fundamentalist), and the past (Vanity Fair), show an adept ability to inhabit a particular
cultural context from the inside out instead of the usual outside in. Queen of Katwe is humbly remarkable in
this way. Nair, from a screenplay by William Wheeler (Ray Donovan, of all things), sets the characters’ lives as the norm, with not a hint of an
outsider’s eye or Western point of view intruding. This isn’t an exoticized or
aestheticized foreign poverty. This is the everyday lived experience of real
people, presented as such, understood with compassion and empathy, and used as
the fertile soil from which its hard-fought successes can grow all the more
inspirational for it.
The warm, believably lived-in spirit extends to the lovely
performances. The lead girl (Madina Nalwanga) is intensely sympathetic as her
timid steps into the world of chess blossom into passion, her natural talent so
evident she’s soon way ahead of the rest. The other children are a fine
ensemble chorus, from an adorable little boy excited to win and tearful when
losing, to a sweet dimpled girl who loves the feminist power of the Queen
ruling the board and throws a fit at a competition when an older competitor
removes her precious favorite piece. There’s something refreshingly unaffected
and natural about the child performances here. Meanwhile, the chess teacher
(David Oyelowo) is so pure-hearted and good that he’s almost unbelievable, but
for the weariness in his irrepressible drive to make a difference. He, too, had
a rough beginning to his life, and current financial concerns, and though he left
and got an education he has returned with the mission of helping children. He’s
able to connect in the enriching and encouraging manner of all the best
teachers.
Lupita Nyong’o plays the lead’s mother, struggling to get by
but rising to every challenge. She’s suspicious of an activity that’ll take her
children away from the daily selling in the streets, but also begrudgingly
accepts that it just might win them the chance to go to school on a
scholarship. Nyong’o carries a life of hurt in her eyes, deepening and
strengthening our understanding of her perspective, and her tragic backstory,
in just a glance, or a meaningful stare. Here scenes play out with such pained
tenderness, it’s the subtlest and most mature (but not inappropriate or out of
place) subplot I’ve seen in a family movie in ages. Together the adults in this
story make up a fine core of goodness, representing how even people who agree
they want the best for a child can approach the task with honest differences.
Even the usual board members and rules keepers in the sports movie structure
are well-intentioned, if infuriatingly small-minded at times (also a
requirement of the form).
This is the best, smartest, and most honest Disney
based-on-a-true-inspiration competition-based drama since Remember the Titans. It takes what could easily be sentimental or button
pushing and instead treats the material seriously and respectfully, trusting in
its inherent power. It doesn’t talk down to family audiences or find artificial
reason to inject white or western perspective. Nair simply sees her characters
where they are, regards their quotidian daily demands and chess strategy, and
shows them with great clarity and minimum explanation, trusting the audience is
smart enough to figure it out and follow along. This is a movie in which
conflict arises naturally out of the pressures of the game and the struggles of
their lives. Nothing is artificially pumped up for the sake of drama. It’s a
strong, smart, and patient movie about strength of spirit and sharpness of
mind, honed through hard work, good luck, and inner power. It more than earns
its crowd-pleasing uplift.
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