Scenes of a bleak childhood-a barrage of visual punches-begin this unsparing adaptation of boxer-chessmaster-writer John Healy's autobiography. Derided by his London schoolmates, forced into boxing by his violently domineering father, young Healy descends into the "grass arena" of a vagrant, alcoholic life, becoming trapped in a hopeless and increasingly frightening cycle of drinking and drying out. During a term in prison, a friendly inmate teaches Healy to play chess. Healy replaces his alcohol addiction with an equally obsessive pursuit: the mastery of the symbolic warfare of chess. With wry humor, Healy bears the clubby London chess scene's snubs, discovering at last the satisfaction, and limits, of victory. Frank Deasy's spare, unflinching script and director Gillies MacKinnon's economic eye showcase an astonishing, intensely physical performance by Mark Rylance. --George Eldred