Wordplay

IFC Films
‘WORDPLAY’ CAST includes crossword champion Tyler Hinman (left), past multiple-year champion Jon Delfin, N.Y. Times Crossword editor Will Shortz, master crossword constructor Merl Reagle and, sitting, form left past multiple-year champion Trip Payne, one-time champion Ellen Ripstein and contender Al Sanders

Even watching puzzles can be fun
I watch a lot of movies and many can be summarized in one word: Dumb.
The characters are dumb, people you would never want to meet. The plots are dumb. The situations are dumb.
So it was with great enthusiasm I sat down to watch “Wordplay,” a fun documentary about the world of crossword puzzles.
And guess what, you don’t need to be a fan of crossword puzzles to enjoy this film.
Patrick Creadon directed this amazing documentary.
We learn briefly the hows and whys of creating a puzzle. You would think in the digital age it would all be done on the computer.
But Will Shortz, New York Times puzzle editor, is surprisingly low tech. He gives us the basic setup and we see the inevitable challenges that take place and how some obscure words quickly jump into his head that he can use.
Shortz, who has guested on many a late-night talk shows, works in a cramped office lined with dictionaries and other reference materials.
We see how he made the “NBC Nightly News” back in 1996. He created a puzzle with the answer to “winner of tomorrow’s presidential contest.” And when you go to the space, the answer is “Clinton wins.” Wow! How did he know?
But wait. You could also write in “Bob Dole wins.” and the clues to the words that form the letters each have two answers, one of which lines up to make the world “Clinton,” the other “Bob Dole.”
Nobody appreciated this puzzle more than the two candidates themselves, especially Clinton, a big puzzle fan. We even see him in his darker-hair days as president, working on a crossworld puzzle, sandwich in hand, taking a break from running the free world.
We see how Clinton, TV host Jon Stewart, PBS documentarian Ken Burns, Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina and the Indigo Girls work separately on the same puzzle. It’s a pretty funny sequence.
The film centers on the 28th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, held yearly in Stamford, Conn.
We get to know a group of somewhat nerdy individuals who annually trek to the event. One woman tells how her husband had a heart attack at the event back in 1982 and subsequently died, but it didn’t stop her from coming the next year.
At night, there are amateur talent shows. People catch up on the lives of their rivals.
By day, competition gets intense. Participants discuss how they messed up one day and what the gameplan is to make up lost ground.
Not only do all of the spaces have to be filled and properly, but the person who can do it the fastest gets extra credit.
Nobody is eliminated during the contest. Everyone who starts continues to participate, until the final puzzle where the top winner is named. The three top contenders complete the puzzle using a large poster version on a stage. They wear earphones with white noise to drown out distractions.
And when one participant pulls off his headphones, signifying he is finished, we groan as we see he failed to look closely and didn’t fill the entire puzzle. He slams the headphones to the floor and buries his hands in disgust.
There really is a great deal of drama and humanity in this film, along with great admiration for the clever people who put these puzzles together and those who can race through difficult questions and finish in three minutes.
Maybe after every Adam Sandler picture, it might be a good idea to revisit “Wordplay.”
What is a five-letter word for a critic who enjoyed this film?: Viper.

Wordplay
• Directed by Pat Creadon
• Rated PG for languages, thematic elements
• 94 minutes
• 3 1/2 stars out of 4