Cast: Christopher Lambert, Daniel Baldwin, Tom Skerritt, Diane Lane
Director: Carl Schenkel
Producers: Ziad el-Khoury and Jean Luc Defait
Screenplay: Brad Mirman
Cinematography: Dietrich Lohmann
Music: Anne Dudley
U.S. Distributor: Interstar
Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert) is one the world's most accomplished chess grandmasters. During his latest match, where a victory would make him eligible to play for the international title, someone decides to take the game one step further and play it for real - - with young female bodies representing the pieces. Captain Frank Sedman (Tom Skerritt) and Detective Andy Wagner (Daniel Baldwin) begin investigating the serial killings, and the trail leads them to Sanderson. Psychiatrist Kathy Sheppard (Diane Lane) is called in to evaluate his sanity. As the killings continue, the police must decide whether Sanderson is the killer, or merely a pawn in someone else's game.
The fabric of Knight Moves is woven out of cliches. Plot elements have been borrowed from almost every mystery and thriller ever filmed. Red herrings, dumb characters, and false endings abound. In all one-hundred and eleven minutes, there is not a single original idea. This complete bankruptcy of innovation leads to a tedious movie-going experience.
I don't enjoy movies that feature foolish people, and I like them even less when those characters are one-dimensional. Lambert's Sanderson is cold and impassive. He's supposed to be the protagonist, but he inspires apathy. Baldwin's Wagner is so belligerent that it's impossible not to find him offensive, and Skerritt's Sedman isn't much better. The only one who's remotely likable is Diane Lane's Sheppard, and she's too often relegated to the role of the impotent victim. Each of the four main characters is given ample opportunity to commit a number of inexplicably stupid mistakes. With a police force headed by idiots like Sedman and Wagner, it's no wonder so many people get killed in their town. They never even put a tail on their chief suspect.
Knight Moves is characterized by atrocious dialogue. It's really bad -- so bad, in fact, that it makes some of Madonna's lines in Body of Evidence sound believable. The cinematography, which is credited to Dietrich Lohmann, is dark and dreary. Almost every scene, whether inside or out, is shot in dim lighting, frequently making it difficult to identify characters or their actions. Lohmann was probably trying to establish a mood, but for that to work, he needed a script worth making the attempt for.
This film has not received widespread national release. Several large metropolitan areas are being spared the indignity of having Knight Moves thrust upon the unsuspecting public. If you're in one of those places, consider yourself lucky. If not, pretend that you are. As far as this film is concerned, it's checkmate.
© 1993 James Berardinelli