Product Details

• Number of discs: 1
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002ITSAI0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,849 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Playing to win, May 19, 2010

By 

MJ Adams "woodstreet" (UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Queen To Play (DVD)

Viewed inflight on Turkish Airlines. Our heroine is an unfulfilled housewife/cleaner who becomes empowered through her discovery of chess. Intrigued by the game but without knowing how to play, she soon learns that the Queen is the most powerful piece. This discovery becomes a metaphor for her own self realisation as she perseveres to learn and takes on what is unfortunately still a male province ( most chess clubs such as mine in Guildford UK have few if any women members). Although chess is featured throughout the movie, knowledge of the game itself is not required of the viewer - although chess enthusiasts will immediately identify with magical as well as the cerebral and competetive nature of the game. This is a really nice film - and if it inspires anyone to take up the game itself, that would be great.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works for Me, August 18, 2011

By 

Eric Sanberg (Berwyn, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Queen to Play (DVD)

I like films where the main character experiences a self awakening. My guess is a lot of Americans (particularly now) feel like they're just plugged into the wall. They grind it out day to day and look for whatever little time they can to find some peaceful corner to do something that means something to them. This is one of those films.

Sandrine Bonnaire and her husband live, with their teenage daughter, on an Island off of the French mainland. They are both laborers. They eke out a living but not much more. While working as a maid in a hotel, she sees a young, in love, couple absorbed in a game of chess. It somehow captures her imagination and she convinces a local doctor (Kevin Klein) to teach her to play. This leads to her personal adventure.

This is a heck of a movie. Kevin Klein does his usual good job but this movie belongs to Sandrine. She is great. Her face runs through so many subtle expressions throughout the film that I was simply riveted. During much of what happens she wears a weary, worried look. It's as though she's always waiting for the other shoe to drop. As she becomes more absorbed in chess, and you see her crack a smile now and again, the sun comes out. The way her relationships change wither her daughter, husband and the doctor is also something to behold. Hollywood would have done this but it probably would not have been as subtle. Then there's the tournament. I found it to be handled in a mature fashion. This could have been too overwrought in the hands of a lesser director. Much of this movie thrives on that same understatement.

I do wonder how much this movie was trimmed. I have a feeling there were many more scenes with her and her girlfriends. And one scene with Klein looked to have been edited with a machete. The jump in the action was so jarring it freaked me. But these are minor quibbles compared to how good it is overall. If you're into this sort of thing you couldn't do much better.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Nice, January 17, 2010

By 

Olympia Pilafidis (Indio, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen To Play (DVD)

I saw this film at the Palm Springs Film Festival and it is a wonderful interplay of human romantic emotions and inner ambition to escape the mundane, all evolving around the game of chess. The acting was superb and the scenery unique of the Mediterranean.