There are plenty of reasons why there aren't a lot of movies made about chess. Not to disrespect the most high-brow of pastimes, but not even Tom Cruise could make moving a pawn to B7 to induce checkmate seem sexy.

To be fair, "The Luzhin Defence" is not strictly about chess. Rather, it's adapted from the novel by Vladimir "Lolita" Nabokov and tells the story of an off-beat relationship between John Turturro's wacky grand master Alexander and society beauty Natalia (Watson).

After Natalia happens to spend her holiday in the same hotel that is hosting the Chess Championships, she bumps into Luzhin, a tortured genius exploited by his teacher (Wilson - one of Hollywood's premier "know-the-face-but-not-the-name" actors), who has become an introverted weirdo prone to outbursts of indecipherable nonsense inbetween furious strategising.

Anyway, Natalia must be into weirdos, because despite the arguments of her mother (James), she begins to fall in love. Fairytale stuff it may seem, but anyone remotely familiar with Nabokov will know that happy endings are not guaranteed.

As ever Turturro is thoroughly watchable, but unfortunately, his cranky intensity is wasted on Watson, who underplays it so much that soon you don't care whether she finds happiness. There's no doubt that Watson is a good actress in the right part, but here, her doe-eyed, soft-spoken routine becomes increasingly boring.

Ultimately then, "The Luzhin Defence" is a perfectly well-made movie. But with a central relationship that is far from compelling, despite Turturro's performance, it's also a dull one.

Read a review of the DVD.