Wordplay (7 of 10)
Review by James Jones
In one of Wordplay’s most astonishing segments, a man sits down to attempt the day’s New York Times crossword puzzle after he’s put his children to bed. He casually mentions that he can usually finish in less than two and a half minutes, and then proceeds to complete the entire crossword in 123 seconds. The scene, which is filmed with no cuts in real-time, somehow manages to make cross wording exhilarating as a combination of split screens and close-ups allows the audience to ride shotgun.
Wordplay is an efficient, entertaining documentary, directed by Patrick Creadon, about crossword puzzling culture. The film profiles New York Times puzzle whiz Will Shortz, a handful of competitive crossworders and a puzzle maker. Wordplay’s gripping second act documents the annual crossword championships (hosted by Shortz), held for the past thirty years in a Ramada Inn in Stamford Connecticut.
Surprisingly, Wordplay’s freaky nerd quotient clocks in a bit lower than expected. This is not a movie that points a finger and laughs at its subjects like the Star Trek fanatic documentary Trekkies, which will make you feel cooler than Han Solo eating ice cream. Wordplay presents its crossworders as intelligent, dynamic human beings, as well it should. Some the documentary’s participants include a frat boy prodigy and man who’s been in the finals eleven times and never managed to win.
In addition to its likeable subjects and (I can’t believe I’m about to write this) spellbinding crossword action, Wordplay boasts a number of mega-watt cameos, as celebrities from John Stewart to Bill Clinton are enlisted to extol the virtues of the crossword.
But it’s the puzzlers and their stories that are the showcase here; so check out Wordplay, a fun little summer documentary with brains and a heart.