Puzzle

Turtletaub does have a hard time finding a way to conclude Agnes’ story, but he ends Puzzle on such a delightful note of simplicity, that this near-perfect movie nevertheless stuns.

Puzzle just kind of chugs along at its own pace, one of those small movies that packs a bigger punch, one in which, sorry, all the pieces fit.

In Puzzle, Macdonald has finally found a movie that she doesn’t need to steal, because it belongs to her completely.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film. Yet the play of emotions on Macdonald’s face tells of worries and wounds much deeper than anything that can be accounted for in the script, and it will take more than a jigsaw, I reckon, even a thousand-piece whopper, to free this woman’s soul.

Why can’t the film maintain its subtler shadings throughout? It’s a puzzle.

In any case, Puzzle ends strangely, in a way that’s not clear what the filmmakers intended or how we’re supposed to feel about it. It’s entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional.

Puzzle is often too prosaic for its own good.

Inline image The movie opens with Agnes (Kelly Macdonald) vacuuming the floors, setting the table, making food trays, baking a cake, hanging a Happy Birthday sign and placing balloons around the house and leads into a party scene with her coming out with the cake with candles and everybody singing "Happy Birthday"--to her! She is not only the birthday woman but the maid, caterer, hostess, wife, mother, housekeeper and, it turns out, fast at putting jigsaw puzzles together. One of her birthday gifts is a jigsaw puzzle and when she eventually sits down to work she is surprised at how quick she can work it out and decides to buy another one and finds out about a store in New York City that majors in selling jigsaw puzzles. Agnes travels in from her Connecticut home starting a journey on discovering herself as a person. Along the way we meet Robert (Irrfan Khan), a millionaire inventor who lives in a beautiful home, impersonally furnished, in Manhattan whose wife left him, and he is looking for a partner to enter puzzle competitions. Agnes has a loving husband, Louie, (David Denman), a domineering man who loves his wife and kids but expects them to wait on him hand and foot. They have two sons Gabe (Austin Abrams) who wants to take a year off before going to college and Ziggy (Bubba Weiler) who is expected to work in his father's garage but who wants to be a cook. "Puzzle" is a gem of a movie, an independant film, showing a character who grows right before our eyes starting off slowly in slow increments and watch her take small steps before taking large ones. Kelly Macdonald embodies that growth involving us with her own surprises at who she really is underneath the meek, church going, obedient wife and mother presented at the opening of the movie. David Denman, as the father who looks at a son who wants to be a cook as 'unmanly', gives a performance equal to Macdonald's and is particularly moving in a family scene and another where he confronts the wife he thought he knew but is a puzzle to him now. Khan, Abrams and, particularly Weiler (I just wish he would change that first name!) are strong supporting actors. The screenplay by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann only falter near the ending while the director Marc Turtletaub has a very strong group of actors to work with, guides them and seems to stay out of their way when he should. "Puzzle" is a 'must see' movie for many reasons but mainly to watch an actress take her character through life changes, make those changes believable to her and us and is surrounded by actors who react to the changes that happen to her as we would.

I do not understand the critics who said "weak story": there is a strong plot line with crisis and resolution; you just need to think about the ending and what it implies about Abigail's choice and its ramifications. Perhaps they were confused by the lack of physical violence and Abigail's personality. If you like slice-of-life and character studies, please see this film.

Okayish at most. It never operates with precision, and basically the enjoyment of its plot lies in whether the story interests you enough to continue 'til the end.

The compactness is missing, ergo the procedure comes off slow, not the pace but the disclosure of the layer. Puzzle Turtletaub has a whole different problem to solve at first. It is painful to see him work his way out. Probably because he didn't dig it up. This is coming from the script. Not to say, he isn't to be blamed. The director Marc Turtletaub ought to and has to place himself as a bridge, productive, helpful, comforting catalyst simplifying the complex themes attempted to score by the writers. And what makes it more sad is that the actors on the other hand are diving deep in their roles, embodying a troubled personality fluently. Kelly Macdonald as a catholic women is something I don't get completely but am in sync with what she is announcing without a podium. Her sweetness, I-am-sorry attitude and easily-influenced personality is what's essentially grabbing us. Convincing us to stay on the track for when she hits the train and goes rogue, those very behavior darkens the tone in the film. Irrfan Khan is the supporter, her partner and that is what he stays. All the time, all the way. He is the perfect anecdote to the world she has been revolving around. She states it clearly when she defines him, he is not like anything, anyone she has ever come in contact with. This is where the film gets stuck into another issue. It desperately needs a narrator. The characters often goes irrelevantly loud, guiding us where, what or in which state they are. Unfortunately, the core equation, between Khan and Macdonal, is the very relationship that never spoke to me. You feel skipped, left out and rushed away from making sense. There is very less justification, in the sense that not everything might line up, smoothly. It shouldn't be this hard for us to believe in the experience that they share, they go through, it shouldn't be a Puzzle.

(Mauro Lanari) Episode 6938 of "Desperate Housewife" and scripted by pseudo-intellectuals: her husband **** a tray to her, and she learns to repair it by becoming national jigsaw puzzle champion. Will anything change in their lives? Yes, no, who cares.