As played by Oyelowo, Robert is an irrepressible spring of warmth and wisdom, while Nyong’o, in her first live-action role since her harrowing, Oscar-winning turn in 12 Years A Slave, plays a fierce single mother whose temper is as formidable as her beauty. On the grown ups’ side, Oyelowo and Nyong’o are wonderful too and it feels as if they’ve each been waiting for a starring vehicle like this for some time. In particular, young Nikita Waligwa steals scenes and hearts as Gloria even before she’s pitted against an opponent who is several years older and at least three feet taller than her, with amusing results. Phiona is also surrounded by an adorable supporting cast of characters who have bought into this game as much as she has, leading to a lot of tears when they come off worse. Nalwanga is fascinating to watch in all of her stoicism and vulnerability and she carries the underdog story effortlessly. For instance, where 2014’s similarly Disneyfied true story Million Dollar Arm failed by sticking too closely to the true story, leading to the preposterous scene where Jon Hamm’s baseball scout gets the idea to go to India by watching Susan Boyle’s entire Britain’s Got Talent audition, Nair finds a ring of authenticity in the story and grasps it tightly.Īlthough the film gets some hefty metaphorical mileage out of a pawn’s journey to become a queen, and even leans on that a little too heavily in some scenes, the game is not so important as what it means for Phiona. The result is surely one of the year’s most under-appreciated gems, which soars in all of the areas in which its forerunners fell down. One pupil in particular, Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), proves to be a natural and Robert encourages her to pursue her passion to an international level over a number of years, despite the objections of her protective mother Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o). In the titular Kampala slum, selfless youth ministry coach Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) introduces chess to the local kids by offering free food at his classes. Adapted from Tim Crothers’ 2012 article The Queen Of Katwe: A Story Of Life, Chess and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream Of Becoming A Grandmaster, Mira Nair’s winsome sports underdog movie just happens to be set entirely in Uganda. For a film that’s competing with lots of big new releases in UK cinemas this week, there has been rather too much emphasis on how radical Queen Of Katwe is for a Disney film.
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