Wordplay

Review By: Aysha Hussain
AyshaHussain@TheCinemaSource.com

You can find it inside the pages of every newspaper, travel books and even on top of coffee tables.

The answer is a fifteen-letter word for one of America’s most popular solitaire games. What is it you ask? A “crossword puzzle,” of course!

When producer Christine O’Malley and director Patrick Creadon wanted to explore the world of crossword puzzles they knew exactly who to turn to—New York Times puzzle editor and NPR puzzle-master, Will Shortz (“the ‘Errol Flynn’ of crossword puzzling” as Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show put it).

Instead of treading traditional documentary film territory, O’Malley and Creadon decided audiences were more likely to be interested in seeing how crossword puzzles impact on peoples’ everyday lives. They penned the film Wordplay.

In addition to the film’s muse (Shortz), the film introduces us to a variety of different characters, some of which you may already be familiar with, but wouldn’t necessarily think would be into crossword puzzles—people like Bill Clinton, Mike Mussina (starting pitcher for the New York Yankees) and my personal favorite, funny man Jon Stewart (host of The Daily Show). The film goes one step further by interviewing a select group of professional crossword constructors, computer programmers and musicians, one of those being the Indigo Girls. As it turns out, computer programmers and musicians have a knack for crossword puzzles mostly because of their familiarity with decoding notes and letters.

Ask any avid puzzler and they will tell you that the New York Times crossword amongst all others is the standard for all crosswords. As the week progresses so does the crossword’s level of difficulty. Let’s say you forget what day it is (which tends to happen to several of us), reach for the New York Times crossword, and you’ll see you’re hovering over a Thursday puzzle.

With so much effort and little recognition, it only seems just that there would be a forum where ardent crossword puzzlers could purge their blood, sweat and tears. Hosted and directed by Shortz since its inception in 1978, Wordplay took us inside the 28th Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) where nearly five hundred competitors gathered inside one large banquet hall to crown the grand puzzler. The person to successfully complete each crossword within the shortest amount of time wins a $4,000 prize. One mistake and you’re finished! Yes there is such a tournament and every year it takes place at the same location in Stamford, Connecticut. Long live tradition!

If you think the ACPT sounds pretty out there, just think about what the competitors