Finding Her Own Way

Anya Taylor-Joy as a Chess Prodigy 

Beth Harmon. a child left to navigate her own life when her mother is killed in an auto accident and she is spared, is eight years old, bright but not outgoing, and on her own. Her story, a fiction so bizarre that it rings true, is the basis of the Netflix 7-part series The Queen's Gambit. 

The series presents her life in flashbacks and straight narrative as Beth grows from confused childhood to extraordinary fame as an expert in the prestigious, challenging, masculine milieu of a highly-rated chess player, with its own rules and boundaries. A Dickensian tale, set in Kentucky in the early 1960s and the larger world, the title refers to a chess move Beth masters early on. 

We see in flashbacks young Beth being coached to learn to live her life by herself, by a mother who even she senses is a little off, an angry recluse who knows her time with her daughter is going to end—and by her own devices. Beth learns to harden herself as she observes the dark world around her. She is in an orphanage, and the grownups in her orbit are not supportive (much less loving). She happens upon the janitor in the basement, where she has been sent to clean erasers, and this man is playing chess by himself, every spare moment he has.

Forced by circumstances to find her own way through life, almost magically Beth persuades him (in an excellent acting turn by Bill Camp, spot-on perfect for the role) to play the game with her. Mr. Shaibel is noncommital to the point of being stern, but it is clear he is well aware that his student is light years better at the game than anybody he has ever played.  

There is something very appealing about this stony child, and we are swept into her life as she makes big mistakes and little ones--meets fascinating people but is not taken in by them--and travels the world of the early 1960s, enlivening the once-esoteric sphere of chess championships and makes us feel a part of them. A very moving section of her story is when, as a young teenager, she is adopted away from the orphan home and into a somewhat typical American home of the day, and ends up bonding with her adoptive mother, a very convincing trapped 1960s housewife, played by Marielle Heller. This mother figure is clearly flawed, but a dear, lost human being as much in need of mentoring as her adopted daughter is. Beth as a child is portrayed by two different actresses, so like Ms. Taylor-Joy I had trouble believing she hadn't played all three.We watch the men who crack the shell of Beth Harmon,  chess masters all, and see her development as a full person by the end of the series. Actress Moses Ingram helped humanize Beth by being a friend to her, and in their individual ways so did Harry Melling, Joseph Fortune-Lloyd, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. All these characters taught Beth something, even if it was not what they thought they were teaching her. 

But it's really all about Beth Harmon, a young woman who had to find her own guideposts and stumbling blocks, and with the outstanding actress Anya Taylor-Joy at the helm, The Queen's Gambit is a fine ride. Based on a novel by a man, Walter Tevis, and produced by two other men, Scott Frank  and Allan Scott, nevertheless I saw this as a woman's movie, life from the viewpoint of an empowered and brilliant woman, defining life on her own terms, and as that it was totally satisfying.