Categories: cinema
Date: 28 October 2006 02:18:02
I saw Wordplay last night: and absolutely loved it. You truly cannot believe how interesting, informative, and even gripping, a movie about crosswords can be. But it is all of those -- and more.
The movie is centred around the Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which looks like a lot of fun!, but on the way to getting there we meet crossword puzzle fans [ some contestants and past winners, others celebrities such as Bill Clinton and the Indigo Girls], Will Shortz [the NY Times crossword puzzle editor and the fellow who started the tournament], and crossword creator Merl Reagle. Seeing Merl at work creating a crossword layout was amazing: the amount of thought and work that goes into creating a good puzzle [often themes are used when constructing one] has to be seen. I have a much deeper appreciation for the complexities of crossword creation and the various 'rules' -- and it was also interesting to learn about American crossword layouts which differ from their British counterparts.
The tournament was the highlight though: aside from the competition, it was amazing to see people who came year after year, and who knew each other -- and new people being warmly welcomed. There was also an "American Idol" night where various people performed acts. And then there was the tournament itself: what pressure. There are 7 rounds which all participate in, and then the top three at the end of those rounds compete in the final round on giant crosswords on a stage. The filmmakers truly captured the tenseness of the competition. Highly recommended: a great movie.
As an aside, I've just installed Firefox 2: an interesting feature is its spell-checker: as I've been typing, words that are spelled wrong, or in some cases that it thinks are spelled wrong [I must have the US dictionary as it doesn't like "centred"] -- have been underlined. Technology! And the opening of links in a new tab rather than a new browser is also a nice change: for me -- but I can see where it may get frustrating.