Pawn Sacrifice
Bleecker Street | Release Date: September 16, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 17, 2015
Edward Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice is an enthralling piece of mainstream entertainment that captures the essence of Fischer’s mad genius, perfectly re-creates the tenor of the times AND works as a legit sports movie about the great game of chess. Read full review
89
TheWrapTim AppeloSep 15, 2015
Pawn Sacrifice is intelligent, absorbing, never boring, and skillfully tense when it should be. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonSep 17, 2015
Best appreciated as a movie about being obsessed — a character trait that’s certainly not limited to chess masters. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 24, 2015
While Zwick doesn’t dig as deeply as he might in searching for answers, the subject matter, combined with Tobey Maguire’s performance as Fischer, makes this a compelling film. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 17, 2015
Maguire’s portrayal of Fischer’s volatility, disconnect and inner demons is gripping. It’s his best performance since “Wonder Boys” (2000). Schreiber hardly says anything, yet he’s gloweringly good. He acts with his jowls and brow and swept-back hair, making the sort-of rock-’n’-roll Spassky a polar opposite, but strategic equal, to Fischer. Saarsgaard is also terrific, lending a quiet air of solemnity and thoughtfulness. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 17, 2015
Pawn Sacrifice sticks admirably close to the facts of that peculiar historical moment, and features a showboat performance from Tobey Maguire as the increasingly disturbed Fischer, along with a more composed one from Liev Schreiber as the taciturn Spassky. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSep 17, 2015
A gripping study of Bobby Fischer, perhaps the greatest chess player ever. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 17, 2015
Overall, the movie presents a worthy and historical look at the link between genius and mental illness. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 17, 2015
The film offers few answers about Fischer's descent into derangement. But you watch Maguire and slowly, with pity and terror, you understand. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatySep 17, 2015
The achievement of Edward Zwick’s new Fischer biopic, Pawn Sacrifice, is that it does just that. It manages to turn thinking into action. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineOleg IvanovSep 15, 2015
It's best appreciated as a tragicomic profile of a man whose extraordinary talent was undermined by the farcical political reality in which he was enmeshed. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 15, 2015
As volcanic as Maguire needs to be, it’s those who react to Fischer most tellingly — Sarsgaard’s priest, and Schreiber’s Spassky — that make Pawn Sacrifice the gripping and entertaining history lesson that it is. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 14, 2014
Pawn Sacrifice certainly whips up a dervish of energy, and as a piece of dramatic entertainment, it's mostly engaging, and features character actors doing very good work. Read full review
70
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerSep 15, 2015
Ultimately, it is only partly about Bobby Fischer. It is equally about us — Americans or any other nationality inclined to put too much importance on chess matches, soccer matches, space races, whatever. It’s about how we manufacture celebrities on scant pretext and then destroy them, or allow them to destroy themselves while we watch. Read full review
70
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekSep 15, 2015
Pawn Sacrifice clicks along with crisp efficiency. Zwick, the director behind movies like Glory and Blood Diamond, is old-school in his attention to craftsmanship, alive to telling details. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 15, 2015
The film's straight-ahead approach matters less than the complete and utter strangeness of the true story it convincingly tells. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 14, 2014
A classically helmed biopic that brings nothing new to the genre, but benefits from handsome craftmanship and solid performances by Tobey Maguire as the Brooklyn boy wonder, and Liev Schreiber as his longtime Russian nemesis, Boris Spassky. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangSep 14, 2014
Absent the ability to really get the audience’s heads in the game, the film succeeds better at presenting chess as a subtle metaphor for the psychological warfare being waged behind the scenes. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 18, 2015
Overall this is a film in which, as the end credit documentary footage attests, the real story overwhelms its dramatization. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerSep 17, 2015
Makes the case that Fischer's chess prowess and his mental illness were inextricable. The chess fed the paranoia which supported the chess which drove Fischer deeper into madness, and so on. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerSep 16, 2015
While this movie version of Fischer does indeed suffer from mental health issues that make it difficult for him to form functional human relationships, one of the film’s strongest, most potentially surprising pleasures is the sight of Maguire playing both with and against his usual type. Read full review
58
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 14, 2014
As a biopic for Fischer, Pawn Sacrifice can certainly encourage viewers to research more about him. It’s just unfortunate Zwick couldn’t bring a slightly more understated approach to the entire endeavor. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 28, 2015
The movie, though, is not so good. If it came down to acting instead of chess, we might have lost the Cold War. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 24, 2015
Pawn Sacrifice tells a fascinating story in unspectacular fashion, resulting in a draw. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 18, 2015
This is another moderately interesting but shallow biopic with an actor going for broke — to win, not to draw. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireSep 18, 2015
By this time in his life, Fischer (who was Jewish) was already into the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that marred his public persona long after his days in the sports limelight had waned. While Zwick and company do nothing to explain this bizarre mania, Pawn Sacrifice definitely conjures the feeling of it, thanks in large part to the movie's greatest asset: Maguire's edgy, charismatic performance. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesSep 23, 2015
Best yet is Liev Schreiber playing Spassky, big as a Russian bear and as ice-cool as the country’s signature 80-proof spirit. Is it unpatriotic to wish this was his movie, not the twitchy American guy’s? Read full review
40
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 14, 2014
Maguire flails around obligingly, happy to trade amiability for a decent fist at capturing the difficult, prickly Fischer. But he can’t quite carry it off, and the way the script dances around the edge of his illness, exploring the surface symptoms without trying for deeper psychology, leaves the actor exposed. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 14, 2014
Maguire tries hard, and has a good stab at Fischer’s twitchy rage, but can’t bring much freshness or specificity to anything else. Read full review
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