>>REVIEW
WORDPLAY
DIRECTED BY Patrick Creadon
Opens Friday, July 21
Uptown Screen
Crossword nerds rejoice: there finally is a homage to box-and-clue aficionados.
If you are a person who loves words and, more specifically, the solitary yet satisfactory jubilation of solving a crossword puzzle, you are not alone. Wordplay, a documentary directed by Patrick Creadon, keeps things light while delving into the world of all things crossword. Smart and skilfully directed, Wordplay doesn’t take itself too seriously and presents a playful, yet intelligent look at crossworders.
Featured in the film is Will Shortz, longtime editor of the New York Times’ famed crossword puzzles. Shortz’s story is remarkable. He attended the University of Indiana in order to create his own major – which of course was enigmatology, or, for those of us who aren’t complete word-nerds, "puzzle mastery." The ear-to-ear smile Shortz has when talking about crosswords is still with him at the annual American Crossword Tournament that he hosts every year in Stamford, Connecticut. This tournament is at the heart of the movie, as past winners are interviewed and future finalists are followed. These eccentric individuals have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of perfected puzzling, and are all incredibly smart and analytically minded. Wordplay avoids the intellectual snobbery that sometimes coincides with documentaries of an academic nature and its cast of characters, most of whom compete in the tournament, couldn't be more quirky and lovable.
Making appearances are some key New York Times crossword puzzle enthusiasts – most notably, Bill Clinton, Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina and the hilarious Jon Stewart. They all impart their personal tactics for solving the puzzle and their thoughts on why the New York Times crosswords rule.
Mussina compares puzzling to pitching to Barry Bonds, while Clinton takes a political approach, saying that in conflict resolution, there are always paths that don’t appear to be correct or productive until explored, and the same is true for solving crosswords. The film notes that the most successful crossworders are usually not English teachers or scholars, but systematically minded mathematicians and tech people. One of the New York Times crossword creators followed in Wordplay is Mearle Reagle, who can’t avoid coming up with amusing anagrams while driving, such as "Noah’s Ark," which becomes "No, a Shark!"
Wordplay is chock full of information on the crossword creation process, the themes that tie the words of a puzzle together, how puzzles are picked to run in the Times (a Monday puzzle is much easier than a Friday puzzle) and the strategies of those who live for the thrill of solving. The movie is a must-see for crossword addicts and a delight to watch for those of us who aren’t as methodically-minded. |
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