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Wordplay

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Trailer for "Wordplay"

At the recent Toronto Hot Docs documentary film festival, Wordplay was, despite a lot of positive word-of-mouth, at the bottom of my list of films to see. Let’s face it: a movie about crossword puzzles? And the people who make them? It might make an interesting New Yorker piece, but it doesn’t sound awfully cinematic.

Having since seen Wordplay, the debut effort from filmmaker Patrick Creadon, I can say that if nothing else it proves that an interesting and entertaining documentary on just about any subject can be made given the right skills. Creadon structures his film around two things that doubtless helped him raise financing: a famous personality and a competition. Will Shortz may not be a household name, but if a hit film can be made from the National Public Radio series A Prairie Home Companion then why not one featuring the guy who does the popular puzzle segment on NPR’s Sunday morning show? Shortz is also the crossword editor of the New York Times, which allows him to speak with authority on what makes a good puzzle and to introduce us to some of the more successful “constructors,” as those who make puzzles are called. Creadon pads this out with amusing interviews featuring such self-identified puzzle addicts as Jon Stewart, the Indigo Girls, Ken Burns, New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina and Bill Clinton, who makes a strong case for the application of puzzle-solving skills to political life.

The second half of Wordplay follows the 28th Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which is held in Stamford, Connecticut every winter. That this may be one of the most entertaining ways to spend one’s time in Stamford in the dead of winter I won’t argue. As gripping cinema, not so much, though Creadon does his best to involve us in the personalities of the top contenders for the title. They fortunately take it all with tongue in cheek: One winner speaks of being able to put down her snarky boyfriend, when he made fun of her passion, by asking her what he was the best in the country at. And, at the risk of sounding like an NPR-listening snob, you have to somewhat like a movie whose climax depends on your knowing who Emile Zola was.