Life of a King

Eugene Brown comes out after eighteen years in prison and takes a job as a janitor at a school in Washington. He starts teaching chess to the students held in detention. The club he builds becomes the only structure outside the street for the neighbourhood's children. Jake Goldberger directed. Cuba Gooding Jr plays Eugene Brown, Dennis Haysbert one of the club's backers. The story is real. Brown learned chess in prison and founded the Big Chair Chess Club in Washington after his release; it ran for years and kept a good number of children in school. The best thing here is that chess is not used as metaphor but as an actual instrument of discipline: seeing the consequence of a move before you make it is applied directly to the characters' lives. The production is small and the telling conventional, following the known steps of the inspiring-teacher film. Gooding Jr plays it with restraint and saves it. Who it is for: viewers who like modest dramas drawn from real lives. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the mould to break; this walks the familiar road.