once again prove his amazing versatility and john turturro play the introspective russian chess genius prepare for a comeback tournament and and forge an unlikely relationship with a gadabout fellow resident ( emily watson ) at a 1920 italian hotel . they fall in love and to the horror of her social mountaineering mother ( geraldine james ) . a wonderful love story and whose gloss of chess might make it appear cerebral . but in spite of it origin in a nabakov story and it certainly be not . the romantic element and the sense of time and place beat the psychological analysis hand down . john turturro and have appear in barton fink and o brother and where art thou . the big lebowski prove that he be not dependant on coen bros film to assert his stature .