Puzzle sounds like the kind of movie you feel you’ve seen a dozen times before. A humble protagonist (in this case Kelly Macdonald’s Agnes) discovers she has a talent for an offbeat pastime (competitive jigsaw puzzling), overcoming obstacles (her nonplussed husband Louie, played by David Denman) to compete in a big, prize-winning event and along the way discover thrilling new dimensions to her previously sheltered life. To be fair, if you’ve seen 2010 Argentinian drama Rompecabezas you will have seen it before, but even so Marc Turtletaub’s American remake (scripted by Polly Mann and Oren Moverman) proves a triumph of canny expectation-defiance.
For starters, this is no snickering unveiling of a nerdy subculture; the supposedly climactic jigsaw puzzle competition itself is hardly granted any attention. Neither is it a sports movie in disguise; while Agnes is certainly mentored — by the wealthy, attractive and erudite Robert (Irrfan Khan) — the strategic advice is cursory and there’s not a single training montage. Rather than follow the main-street signposts from cliché to cliché, Turtletaub, Mann and Moverman’s narrative takes us via some surprising back alleys. Meanwhile, they never forget to put character ahead of plot — most significantly the character of Agnes.
The result is an absorbing character piece.
Who is something of a puzzle herself. Initially, she seems content in her chore-packed suburban bubble, happy to have her burly, “slaving all day” husband kiss her forehead and call her “cute” while he awaits his next lovingly cooked meal. Agnes’ life-changing fascination with puzzles stems from an ability to see patterns in all things, yet we’re not encouraged to treat her as some kind of savant or undiscovered genius — just someone who’s found a new perspective. She never raises her voice and has a gently precise way of talking that means she rarely uses contractions, which would be odd and off-putting if she weren’t so warmly realised by Macdonald. And, most significantly, she makes decisions which challenge our view of her — not least because her selfish husband and two sons are complex creations, too, not undeserving of sympathy themselves. Agnes is by no means a complete innocent, and her personal metamorphosis has consequences.
The result is an absorbing character piece which takes a very different approach to similar subject matter as that tackled by recent Gemma Arterton showcase The Escape. It’s a much lighter film, but no less thoughtful, infused with a wry sense of humour that brings to mind the work of Alexander Payne. An unexpected, outside-the-box treat.
