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By THEMIS ATHENA
A children's chess
tournament. Two boys facing each other in the
final game, intently staring at each other and the
chess board between them. They make their moves
and register their time. Ultimately, one of them
has to concede defeat. Facing "check" twice and
almost out of time, he topples his king. And
assaults his adversary. A doctor recommends that
he not ever be allowed near a chessboard while he
is treated for his "condition."
Years later, another chess tournament. Grand
master Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert)
attends, making a surprise return after three
years' retirement. He easily wins the first
rounds. After dinner with daughter Erica (whose
only parent he is) and a strategy session with his
advisor, Sanderson concludes the evening with a
few steamy hours with a sensuous blonde...and the
psychopath who will soon hold the community in
thrall has found his first target. When the woman
is found murdered, gruesomely dressed up in death
and the word "Remember" written on the wall above
her in blood, Sanderson initially denies having
been with her. This, and his arrogant demeanor
towards the police officers investigating the
crime -- particularly, Detective Andy Wagner
(Daniel Baldwin) -- makes him an instant suspect.
But is Sanderson the psychopath? Or is he, as
appearances would have it, the psychopath's true
target?
In a grisly game of strategy in which a city is
turned into a chess board and women living in the
target areas of town (attractive blondes all of
them) are the chess pieces, Sanderson and the
police hunt a serial killer who always seems to be
one step ahead of them. While Detective Wagner
never loses his suspicion of Sanderson, his newly
minted boss, Captain Frank Sedman (Tom Skerritt)
reluctantly comes to the conclusion that since the
clues provided by the killer are based on chess
references and directed to none other than
Sanderson himself, they will not be able to solve
the case without his help. Yet, for a long time
the grand master, too, seems unable to decipher
the killer's clues, and the meaning of the words
written above the dead body of each of his
victims. How many women will have to die before
his identity is revealed? Will he ever be caught?
Will psychologist Kathy Sheppard (Diane Lane),
brought in by the police to determine if Sanderson
himself fits their suspect's profile, end up as
one of his victims?
"Knight Moves" is a suspenseful thriller,
intelligently built on the patterns of the royal
game of strategy itself, and in which the audience
is kept on their toes until the very end.
Christopher Lambert in particular is believable as
the astute, arrogant Sanderson, who hides his
personal fears and insecurities under a mask of
inapproachability which only one person seems to
be able to pierce -- his daughter Erica. His
face-offs with Daniel Baldwin's Detective Wagner,
sarcastic and spewing barely controlled rage at
each other, are among the highlights of the movie;
in addition, of course, to the mind game itself
which the killer plays with his hunters and, by
extension, with the audience. While it is clear
that the solution has to have something to do with
the fateful game played by those two boys so long
ago, all elements of the story are only connected
up in the final scenes...which are, however,
unfortunately somewhat overplayed and emphasize
gore more than psychology and hence, are a bit of
a let-down. This, and the relationship soon
forming between Sanderson and Sheppard, which
doesn't entirely work for me (strangely enough,
since Lambert and Lane were married at the time)
are the only deficits I find in this movie.
Overall, however, "Knight Moves" would have
deserved much more attention than it has received
since its 1992 cinematic release, as well as the
bare-bones 2001 DVD release by the now defunct
Republic Studios. |
