What happens when you mix Sister Act 2 with, well Chess? Cuba Gooding Jr‘s new film, Life of a King. Okay, it’s a little more serious than that, the joke was there for the taking though. In actual fact it’s an inspiring true story about an ex con who started a chess club for struggling inner-city kids to try and teach them about the consequences and rewards of life.
In the film Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the lead, Eugene Brown, a man who has just spent the last 18 years in prison. He’s getting out, but he has no idea how much the world around him has changed since he has been inside. He’s struggling to find a job, because as it’s well known, nobody wants to hire an ex-con in today’s society, which makes their redemption from their former lives and crimes a lot harder. His personal life is also in tatters. His daughter, Katrina (Rachae Thomas) wants nothing to do with her disappointing father – referring to him by his name, rather than ‘dad’, while his other son has landed himself in ‘juvie’. With every door seemingly being slammed slut in his face, Eugene has the ever growing presence of his old gang leering over his shoulder, asking him to ‘come home’, but he’s determined not to make the same mistakes 18 years previously. When getting a job as a janitor, he finds himself one day looking after the naughty kids in detention. It’s there that he sees an opportunity to help a group of young and lost kids, and try and open their eyes to the world and help them get the chance he never had. It’s from there Eugene manages to set up his Chess Club, and the students go there to learn how to play. Helped in part by Peanut (Kevin Hendricks), soon more and more kids turn up and it’s one in particular, Tahime (Malcolm M. Mays) who catches Eugene’s eye. He has a natural talent for the game, but he’s in with the wrong crowd and Eugene is desperate to help him, to make sure he doesn’t go down the same path he did.
Life of a King is one of those trying-to-inspire teen dramas, but the emphasis is slightly misplaced. It really comes from the real life story of Eugene Brown. While you can imagine most of what happened in the film was fictional (it is a film after all), the base of the story is there and real. Brown managed to set up the now famous Big Chair Chess Club – they’ve won many titles and it’s a place for young people to go and learn the game and about life at the same time. You can’t argue that it isn’t an inspiring story. The film though feels like it misses out on capitalizing on this, instead going for the big dramatic story, almost like a stock story for films like this. It doesn’t make it a poor film by any means, just a bit of a shame knowing that it could have been slightly different.
The cast is good and thoroughly likable through the entire film, which redeems it somewhat. While the story feels quite formulated, the cast feel quite real. Led superbly by Cuba Gooding Jr. who strikes that balance between trying to help these kids through friendship and kindness but having the strictness of a mentor. The rest of the cast follow suit, which is impressively considering a lot of them haven’t had a lot of screen experience. Malcolm M. Mays and Kevin Hendricks had two stand out performances as the two main characters for the film and they give a genuine sense of young and troubled youths on the streets.
For those who have played chess, or see people playing chess, you know what an intensely complicated and tactical game it can be – just like life – and it seems crazy to imagine places like San Francisco are trying to ban it being played in public due to suspicions ‘other things are going on’. Life of a King shows what effect a seemingly ordinary and simple game like chess can have on a person and a community. There aren’t a lot of hugely popular films based around chess, and you can’t be sure this will be one either, sadly. If any stood a good chance though, it is Life of a King.
Rating: An enjoyable film based on an inspiring true story (5.5/10).
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