REVIEW
Puzzle
Stars: 4.0
Starring Kelly Macdonald, Irrfan Khan, David Denman, Bubba Weiler, Austin Abrams and Liv Hewson
Directed by Marc Turtletaub
Written by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann
Rated: PG for coarse language, violence, and drug use
Runtime: 103 minutes
Puzzle screens on Monday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Arden Theatre as part of the St. Albert Public Library’s Reel Mondays fundraiser. All proceeds go towards producing the St. Albert Readers’ Festival, also known as STARFest.
Tickets are $15 each or $60 for a season pass for all five movies. Tickets are available at the Customer Service desk and at www.Eventbrite.ca. Call 780-459-1530 or visit www.sapl.ca for more information.
Everything in its place. That’s just how Agnes likes it in Puzzle. The 40-ish neatly dressed wife to a snoring mechanic and two cussing teenagers has a well appointed, fastidiously clean home. I expect that there’s a modicum of dust in the place, and what does exist has already been catalogued and scheduled for removal by vacuum. Prim and proper, that’s her way.
Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) has obviously spent her life serving others in her family and through her church. We first meet her meticulously preparing that beautiful house for a birthday party – hers – though it barely feels like she’s in celebration. She’s duty bound to it, somehow. It’s also immediately apparent that she doesn’t really get any sense of appreciation from those she’s surrounded by. She’s the sort of person who preciously cleans and saves the pieces of a shattered ceramic plate to glue back together while the guests are still at the dinner table. It’s very likely something is missing from her life. My guess is that it’s her life.
One of the gifts she receives at the party is a jigsaw puzzle, and this sets her off on her journey of self-discovery. She has a preternatural gift for putting these things together, it seems, and it gives her much pleasure. Anyone who does jigsaws knows what I’m talking about.
In scoping out new puzzles at a puzzle store – this must be a big city – she finds an ad for someone looking for a puzzle partner. Enter Robert (Irrfan Khan), an expert putter-togetherer. I think everyone started to wish they had Irrfan Khan as a friend after watching him in Life of Pi.
Kelly Macdonald is a wonderful actress whose restrained portrait of the repressed Agnes is a revelation. She’s always been a delight to watch, especially when her roles get to utilize her pained expressions and delicate voice. The Scottish thespian excels in the part of an American housewife to domineering husbands, but usually in supporting secondary characters. Here, the film belongs to her and she commands it with such subtlety and tender nuance that she makes the audience’s heart ache and burst.
This intimate and touching drama is part romance, part mid-life crisis. I’m pleased that it didn’t fall for the familiar focus on the inevitable competition to prove the character’s worth. It worked for Akeelah and the Bee, but it would have been an utter disservice to Macdonald’s portrayal of Agnes. We care more about how she puts the pieces of her life together, than the pieces of the puzzles. Altogether, we get an excellent portrait of a woman finding herself.
