Recently I've watched films about those obsessed with Scrabble, Chess, and Cinema. This was probably my favorite. First of all, all the people featured in this documentary seem to be able to function. They make friends, relationships, study, have jobs, etc. This makes them easier to relate to and makes their talents more impressive. Unlike Scrabble, where people just memorized words, and not their meaning, here the contestants need some intelligence. The documentary loses points as it focuses too much on just The New York Times crossword puzzle. Which is fair enough, and leads to us seeing the creation and editing of crosswords. However, it comes across as an advertisement sometimes. Luckily, there is a lot of interest here. You wouldn't believe how much work goes into a simple puzzle, and how clever they can be. I never knew a puzzle could be witty until I saw the election of Bob Dole/Clinton section. It all boils up to a fantastic tournament finish. What I loved about this was that I was routing for all three finalists, and it was an unpredictable, heart-breaking, but also uplifting ending. It contained a lot of emotions without the manipulation you find in sport biopics.

Wordplay (2006) *** (out of 4) Interesting documentary that takes a look at the people who make and work on crossword puzzles with the main focus being on the 28th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. This is the part where I say I'm horrible at doing crossword puzzles so I was extremely fascinated at the people in the spotlight here because to me these people are pretty incredible. For example, doing the tournament there's one puzzle with over a hundred and thirty-five words yet a few of the players get in done in around seven minutes. A lot of the focus of the film is also on Will Shortz, the New York Times editor of their crossword puzzles. He too talks about how he got involved with the puzzles and eventually ended up majoring in them during college. When it comes to the real-life people solving these things we get interviews with people like Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, NY Yankees' pitcher Mike Mussina and even members of the Indigo Girls. The best part of the film are the final twenty-minutes when we get to the tournament and see what the rules are, how they play and one members heartbreak after reaching the final. I won't spoil things but a man named Al will certainly capture your heart. If I think there's one weakness to the film is that it never really gave me the desire to start playing the games myself. While I was fascinated by the subject I can't say the movie ever got me excited or interesting enough to start giving them a try myself.

Wordplay is a geeky docudrama about the wonderful world of crossword puzzles and the people who can't live without them. I personally love word games because of my dyslexia and play scrabble when I get the chance. Crosswords are fun, but not as much as other word games. The film was very well made and gave a superficial glimpse at the crossword world. No action, some humor, and lots of interesting facts about the New York Times crossword, the epitome of crosses. I liked the idea of getting into the lives of the top players to a small degree to find out what type of people they are. I was amazed that they had their own tournament that had been going on so long. Not a lot of action, just a homey film that leaves a good feeling.

I'm shaking my head right now as I notice the high rating for this documentary. I like crossword puzzles maybe like once a year but was very amazed by those who love it. I mean love it. Slamming their headphones when they find out they screwed up only made me laugh. It was interesting to see Mike Mussina talk about his experience with crossword puzzles. And perhaps it was interesting to know that some people can do them in under two minutes but what else can you cram in 80 minutes. It seemed like they just talked about the same old stuff for 60 minutes than they had the competition for 20 minutes.I guess you can say that I don't get it but others will. A decent documentary and you will learn useless things but for entertainment, it was way below average in my eyes.