Wordplay

PG

Released Jan 21, 2006

1h 34m

Documentary

List

94%

122 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Filmmaker Patrick Creadon pays tribute to crossword puzzles and those who love them, and features a profile of The New York Times "puzzle master" Will Shortz. Among the celebrities who swear by the Times puzzle are President Bill Clinton, folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, comic Jon Stewart, baseball player Mike Mussina and filmmaker Ken Burns.

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Critics Consensus

You see them hunched over with their brows furrowed, folded newspaper in hand as they attempt to complete the crossword puzzle. This may even describe you. This ingeniously edited documentary introduces viewers to some of the more dedicated fans of this solitary pastime, none more well-known the puzzle editor for the New York Times, Will Shortz. This underground world provides a surprising amount of crowd-pleasing entertainment and suspense, especially at the annual crossword tournament. Didn't know there was one, did you?

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Audience Member

It's revealing to see that Bill Clinton solves crosswords with a blue felt pen like a complete sociopath.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Wordplay: 5 out of 10: In reviews of Robert Redford's delightful movie Quiz Show critics lamented on the disappearance of the middle class intellectual since those storied fifties. It turns out they are alive and well and doing the New York Times crossword, in ink no less. Wordplay is a documentary about such people and the puzzles they love. Like the New York Times resident cruciverbalist Will Shortz, Wordplay is genial to a fault. The fact is for many people doing the daily crossword is the only intellectual exercise their brain gets all day and is the total sum usage of a four-year liberal arts degree. Let us face it knowledge of Sophocles doesn't come up often at the daily grind. (Or as Sir Humphrey Appleby said in Yes Prime Minister what use is knowing Latin if I can't even use it when talking to the Prime Minister.) So doing the crossword is often the best intellectual stimulation an over-educated person can get in his or her daily experience. (Alas some people only write movie reviews instead.) Does Wordplay touch upon these more significant issues? Not on your life. Instead, we get an assortment of celebrity moments some insightful (Bill Clinton) some humorous (Jon Stewart) and some downright creepy (documentarian Ken Burns). There is a very penetrating look inside the creation of the crossword with enigmatologist Merl Reagle but alas it is over just as it gets interesting. There are also the painfully non-judgmental profiles of the fanatics ï¿ 1/2" those people who dedicate themselves to solving puzzles in record time and winning the crossword championship. So screen time is spent not just watching the crossword championship talent show but watching the baton twirling practice in the park for the same. The film is very slick with excellent graphics, but it indeed isn't at all deep for such an intellectual pursuit.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A quirky, entertaining cast of characters, who happen to be real people. The star of the show is Will Shortz, who is the creator and host of the tournament that the movie portrays.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I almost gave this a 3 because of how ridiculously cheesy the music and editing often were. The editing that critics call "ingenious" but is just annoying and looks like it was done by an amateur in the 80s.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A thrillingly fun and smart documentary about cruciverbal logoplets of the formidable The New York Times' crossword puzzles. The subjects range from celebrities like President Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart, the ingenious puzzle makers, the regular top players of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament to the crossword puzzle editor for NYT, Will Shortz, with a one-of-a-kind degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It was cool to watch, especially to see how people really get into it, and the structure necessary to make them... BUT, unless you're into it...

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

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Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Boy, was I wrong. There's more palm-sweating suspense in one minute of this baby than in all of The Omen.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 24, 2006

Full Review

Stephanie Zacharek

Salon.com

Even though these puzzles are mapped out with utmost precision -- and even though logic is an extremely useful tool for solving them -- they're still, somehow, objects of intrigue and mystery.

Oct 7, 2006

Full Review

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

A playful, informative and very sweet documentary about the world of words 'across' or 'down.'

Rated: 4/5

Jul 7, 2006

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Often brilliant yet ends up falling just a couple letters short of truly being a championship film.

Rated: 2.5/4.0

Sep 27, 2020

Full Review

Felicia Feaster

Creative Loafing

Diverting though Wordplay may be, when it moves into tournament-mode, the film suffers from the essentially undramatic nature of this solitary "sport."

Feb 4, 2020

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)

Mines suspense out of what seems to be the most mundane of entertainments, the crossword puzzle, and makes it more thrilling than any football game ever was.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 6, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Filmmaker Patrick Creadon pays tribute to crossword puzzles and those who love them, and features a profile of The New York Times "puzzle master" Will Shortz. Among the celebrities who swear by the Times puzzle are President Bill Clinton, folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, comic Jon Stewart, baseball player Mike Mussina and filmmaker Ken Burns.

Director: Patrick Creadon
Production Co: O'Malley Creadon Productions, Weinstein Company
Rating: PG (Some Language|Mild Thematic Elements)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 21, 2006, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jun 16, 2006
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 31, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.1M
Runtime: 1h 34m

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