Puz­zle

Based on the 2010 Argen­tine film of the same name, Marc Turtletaub’s Puz­zle has a fair­ly sim­ple premise. Agnes, a meek house­wife and techno­phobe liv­ing in Upstate New York, dis­cov­ers she has a tal­ent for jig­saw puz­zles after receiv­ing one for her birthday.

Feel­ing unap­pre­ci­at­ed by her hus­band and sons, she answers an ad placed by eccen­tric inven­tor Robert, who is seek­ing a part­ner for the Nation­al Jig­saw Cham­pi­onships. Yet far from pro­vid­ing any insight into the very real world of com­pet­i­tive puz­zling, the film itself cen­tres on the metaphor­i­cal puz­zle of Agnes herself.

As a char­ac­ter study, the film hinges on the per­for­mance of Kel­ly Mac­don­ald, who plays Agnes as a vul­ner­a­ble woman doing her best. But she alone can’t save the film’s shaky nar­ra­tive, and there’s a sense from start to fin­ish that Agnes is a trag­ic char­ac­ter who needs sav­ing from the mis­er­able hand life has dealt her.

All the men in her life are unpleas­ant, with the excep­tion of her eldest son Zig­gy, who shares some of Agnes’ unhap­pi­ness, hav­ing been employed at his father’s auto shop despite hav­ing a secret desire to become a chef. Yet this is an unex­plored side plot – when Agnes remarks ​“He’s a real­ly good cook!” we have to take her word for it, because the only time he’s shown cook­ing on-screen is when he makes the fam­i­ly eggs for breakfast.

Puz­zle is more an exer­cise in telling than show­ing, which is a pity, since the cin­e­matog­ra­phy is par­tic­u­lar­ly strong. A plinky-plonk piano score adds to the sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty, and as Agnes is the only char­ac­ter afford­ed any sort of depth, it’s dif­fi­cult to see her hus­band Louie or puz­zle part­ner Robert as any­thing oth­er than thin­ly-sketched outlines.

The film’s attempts to paint a pic­ture of life in mid­dle Amer­i­ca are sim­i­lar­ly uncon­vinc­ing. Agnes is a techno­phobe, sus­pi­cious of the iPhone she’s gift­ed for her birth­day, but there’s nev­er any rea­son giv­en for her aver­sion to mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy, or much insight into why she enjoys puz­zling so much, besides a vague hint that she might have an undi­ag­nosed men­tal health condition.

Giv­en Macdonald’s warmth and pres­ence this film real­ly ought to be more charm­ing than it is; there’s just not enough of a sto­ry here. Char­ac­ters make strange deci­sions, and the jig­saw MacGuf­fin is a poor metaphor for try­ing to make order out of chaos.