''Puzzle'' is a 2018 American
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film directed by
Marc Turtletaub
Marc Jay Turtletaub (born January 30, 1946) is an American film producer and former president and CEO of The Money Store.
Early life and education
Born in Lakewood, New Jersey, he grew up in Perth Amboy, New JerseyOrtner, Sherry, B''Not Hollyw ...
and written by
Oren Moverman
Oren Moverman ( he, אורן מוברמן; born July 4, 1966) is an Israeli-American Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, film director, and Emmy Award-winning film producer. He has directed the films ''The Messenger (2009 film), The Messenger ...
and Polly Mann, based on the 2010 Argentine
film of the same name. It stars
Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish actress. She is known for her roles in '' Trainspotting'' (1996), '' Gosford Park'' (2001), '' Intermission'' (2003), '' Nanny McPhee'' (2005), '' No Country for Old Men'' (2007), ''Boardwa ...
,
Irrfan Khan
Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...
(in his final English-language role before his death on April 29, 2020),
David Denman
David Denman (born July 25, 1973) is an American actor. He made his film debut in '' The Replacements''. His other feature credits include ''Big Fish'', '' Fair Game'', ''The Nines'', '' Shutter'', ''Smart People'', '' Fanboys'', '' Let Go'', '' ...
, Bubba Weiler,
Austin Abrams
Austin Noah Abrams (born September 2, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Ron Anderson in the fifth and sixth seasons of the television series '' The Walking Dead'' (2015–2016), as Ethan Daley in ''Euphoria'' (since 2019) ...
,
Liv Hewson
Liv Hewson (born 29 November 1995) is an Australian actor and playwright. Their written work includes "lots of re-imaginings of fairytales and mythology with a queer and dark slant." They starred as Abby Hammond in the Netflix series ''Santa Cla ...
, and follows a
stay-at-home mother who enters a puzzle building competition. The film premiered at the
2018 Sundance Film Festival
The 2018 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 18 to January 28, 2018. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 29, 2017.
Awards
The following awards were presented:
* U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award: '' Th ...
.
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...
then acquired the worldwide rights to the film, and released it on July 27, 2018.
Plot
Agnes is a middle-class suburban homemaker and mother of two grown sons, Ziggy and Gabe, who seem stuck with her husband Louie in a monotonous routine. She serves her family devotedly and without argument. After baking her own cake, and serving and cleaning up after her own birthday party, she finds herself drawn to a 1000 piece
jigsaw puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture.
In th ...
among all the gifts she received. She likes it so much she travels to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to visit a shop where she can find more complex puzzles.
At the shop Agnes notices an advertisement that leads her to Robert, a former puzzle tournament champion who is looking for a new partner to compete in a championship tournament the following month. Robert is a wealthy and reclusive inventor whose wife (who was also his puzzle partner) has recently left him. Agnes is intrigued by their differences whereas Robert is surprised by Agnes’ unorthodox approach for solving puzzles and considers her as a Godsend. Robert asks her to meet him twice a week in order to prepare for the national tournament.
Agnes tells her family that she needs to help an aunt who has broken her leg, lying every day while trying to help her eldest son discern what kind of life he really wants. She is frustrated by her husband's resistance and shocks her family as she begins to assert herself, declaring that she is going to the tournament. She keeps her relationship with Robert secret as she falls in love with him.
On the last day of practice, Agnes and Robert get intimate and have intercourse. As a result she is late returning home. On her arrival, Louie finally confronts her and asks whether she’s having an affair. Agnes confesses that she had sex with her puzzle partner (Robert). The next day, the day of the tournament, Ziggy cooks breakfast for her. Agnes and Robert win the national tournament. Agnes breaks the news of her success to her sons but doesn’t tell them that she has to leave for Brussels soon to compete in the World Jigsaw Puzzle Tournament.
Agnes, along with both her sons and Nicki, goes to the family's old vacation home, which Louie has agreed to sell so the boys can pursue their dreams. There, Agnes calls Robert. Robert reminds her of the flight for Brussels they have to catch. Agnes informs Robert that she is not coming to the international championship. Instead, she boards a train to Montreal, going her own way.
Cast
*
Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish actress. She is known for her roles in '' Trainspotting'' (1996), '' Gosford Park'' (2001), '' Intermission'' (2003), '' Nanny McPhee'' (2005), '' No Country for Old Men'' (2007), ''Boardwa ...
as Agnes, Louie's wife and mother to Ziggy and Gabe
*
Irrfan Khan
Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...
as Robert, Agnes’ puzzle partner
*
David Denman
David Denman (born July 25, 1973) is an American actor. He made his film debut in '' The Replacements''. His other feature credits include ''Big Fish'', '' Fair Game'', ''The Nines'', '' Shutter'', ''Smart People'', '' Fanboys'', '' Let Go'', '' ...
as Louie, Agnes’ husband and Ziggy and Gabe's father
* Bubba Weiler as Ziggy, Agnes and Louie's older son and Gabe's brother
*
Austin Abrams
Austin Noah Abrams (born September 2, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Ron Anderson in the fifth and sixth seasons of the television series '' The Walking Dead'' (2015–2016), as Ethan Daley in ''Euphoria'' (since 2019) ...
as Gabe, Agnes and Louie's younger son and Ziggy's brother and Nicki's boyfriend
*
Liv Hewson
Liv Hewson (born 29 November 1995) is an Australian actor and playwright. Their written work includes "lots of re-imaginings of fairytales and mythology with a queer and dark slant." They starred as Abby Hammond in the Netflix series ''Santa Cla ...
as Nicki, Gabe's girlfriend
Release
The film had its world premiere at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
on January 23, 2018,
and was released in the United States on July 27, 2018.
Its release for Blu-ray and DVD sales took place on November 13, 2018 by
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.
Background
SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures lib ...
.
Reception
Box office
''Puzzle'' grossed $2 million in the United States and Canada
and $235,611 in other territories for a worldwide total of $2.3 million, in addition to $19,979 from home video sales.
Critical response
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''Puzzle'' transcends its quirky premise with honest emotion – and Kelly Macdonald, whose nicely understated performance proves she's too often underutilized."
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, it holds a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Peter Debruge from ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' described the remake of the well-liked Argentine film as a way for "Kelly Macdonald to shine amid the yawn-inducing world of competitive jigsaw puzzling." Kate Erbland from ''
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
'' gave film a grade of "B+" and said that Macdonald "excels in the rare drama that follows a woman's own journey to self-actualization", and that the film "toes a tough line, managing to stay relentlessly good-hearted and deeply humane, even as Agnes herself plunges into deeper, more dramatic waters".
Jordan Ruimy from ''The Playlist'' said that the film takes its time "to let its characters breathe, building up a beautiful atmosphere filled with richly lit, eye-melting shots" by Norr. However, he noted that the script eventually is complicated by "a struggle to tie things up, if they should be tied-up at all".
References
External links
*
*
*
*Audience overview o
Shadowgrapher
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puzzle
2018 films
2018 independent films
Sony Pictures Classics films
Big Beach (company) films
American remakes of Argentine films
American drama films
Midlife crisis films
Films set in Connecticut
Films scored by Dustin O'Halloran
2010s English-language films
2010s American films