Review: 'dark Horse' A Loving Portrait Of An Unlikely Hero

Compelling and authentic, lumbering and gentle, wise and innocent — the actor and his character are inseparable in this film. Mana shows interest in his uncle's chess club, but his father forbids the distraction. Gen secretly allows his nephew to join anyway, threatening friction in the family that would upend Gen's fragile mental state. The real Potini saw chess as a great equalizer among people and practical way to solve problems: he believed anyone could learn to play, and the skills needed to figure things out in the game also worked in everyday life. Gen is such a big-hearted character that his story is more than just a portrait of overcoming mental illness or a tale of a loving mentor taking his rag-tag team to the top. The Dark Horse," a Broad Green Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "language throughout and drug use.