“Queen of Katwe”

Rated PG (2:04)

Opens today

“Irresistible” is one of those adjectives that critics should handle with utmost care. No matter how universally charming or winning a movie or a performance might seem to be, there is always a chance that somebody, somewhere, will be able to resist it. For all I know that may be the case with “Queen of Katwe,” but if there is anyone out there capable of remaining unmoved by this true-life triumph-of-the-underdog sports story, I don’t think I want to meet that person.

To be fair, the film, directed by Mira Nair, based on Tim Crothers’ book and enabled by the magical corporate synergy of Disney and ESPN, belongs to a genre that specializes in defeating skepticism and swelling the stoniest hearts. Just as surely as a creaky door or a clap of thunder will summon shivers of fright the thousandth time you hear it, so will the spectacle of a scrappy group of strivers following their unlikely coach to victory bring lumps to throats and tears to eyes. Did “Hoosiers” make you cry? “Queen of Katwe” will wreck you.

Katwe is a poor township outside of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and it is the hometown of Phiona Mutesi, a chess prodigy played by Madina Nalwanga in her film debut. Phiona lives with three siblings under the watchful, tired eye of their mother, Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o), who has lost her husband and another child and who scratches out a living selling food on the street. The family never has enough money, and Uganda is depicted as a country of stark inequalities ruled by an unforgiving cash economy. Shelter, schooling, medical treatment and transportation to the hospital after an accident must be paid for up front. Harriet, her mouth a permanent frown, is nearly consumed by worry and fatigue. Her eldest daughter, Night (Taryn Kyaze), has taken up with an unsavory guy on a motorbike. The middle children, Phiona and her younger brother, Brian (Martin Kabanza), scarcely have enough to eat.

Chess enters their world thanks to Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), who teaches the game to Katwe’s children as part of a youth ministry. Robert, whose own youth was scarred by poverty and war, has an engineering degree but lacks the connections that would help land him a job working for the government or a private company. He is an inspiring coach — when Oyelowo wants to inspire you, you are darn well going to be inspired — and also a sly and cheerful class warrior. He fast-talks his way into a chess tournament held at a snooty private school, and proudly leads his charges into battle against opponents who are reluctant to shake their hands.

The sight of well-fed, well-dressed schoolboys beaten by a girl — a poor girl, at that — would be satisfying even if “Queen of Katwe” were a less vivid and engaging movie. In Nair’s hands, Phiona’s story has a richness and unpredictability that separates it from other, superficially similar movies. It also has the buoyant, cleareyed feel for the particulars of culture and place that is among this director’s great gifts, evident in films as different as “Mississippi Masala,” “Monsoon Wedding” and “Vanity Fair.” Phiona’s circumstances are harsh, and the film hardly minimizes the brutal choices and painful limitations placed on women like Harriet and Night. Nor does it suggest that winning chess matches is a magical solution to the world’s injustice. “Hope is not a tactic,” Robert likes to say. But despair is not a strategy, and Nair and the screenwriter, William Wheeler, refuse to turn African life into a pageant of grimness and deprivation.

“Queen of Katwe” is likely to be embraced by young viewers, and there is nothing here they won’t be able to handle. Adults, meanwhile, can surrender to some old-fashioned melodramatic pleasures, as the busy plot takes in Harriet and Robert’s struggles as well as Phiona’s. But in the end it is Nalwanga who will rivet all eyes in the way that untrained, naturally charismatic screen performers sometimes can, especially when supported by actors with the technical expertise of Nyong’o and Oyelowo.

Nalwanga’s watchful, quiet presence conveys both shyness and determination, a habit of humility in tension with an almost superhuman intelligence. Phiona’s awakening sense of her talent is the engine that drives the main plot of “Queen of Katwe” and also what makes it an affecting character study. When she starts to learn chess, she can barely read, and her growing awareness of the powers of her mind is thrilling to watch. Nair makes this process as visible, as palpable — as irresistible — as any boxing match or soccer game.

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The New York Times does not provide star ratings for movie reviews.