Puzzle is a 2018 American drama film directed by Marc Turtletaub and written by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, based on the 2010 Argentine film of the same name. It stars Kelly Macdonald, Irrfan Khan (in his final English-language role before his death on April 29, 2020), David Denman, Bubba Weiler, Austin Abrams, Liv Hewson, and follows a suburban homemaker who walks out on her marriage to pursue a high-stakes competitive puzzle career with a wealthy inventor, culminating in a dramatic finale aboard a boat. The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics then acquired the worldwide rights to the film, and released it on July 27, 2018.
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Plot
Agnes is a middle-class suburban homemaker and mother of two grown sons, Ziggy and Gabe, who seems stuck with her husband Louie in a monotonous routine. She serves her family devotedly and without argument. After baking her own cake, and serving and cleaning up after her own birthday party, she finds herself drawn to a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle among all the gifts she received. She likes it so much she travels to New York City to visit a shop where she can find more complex puzzles.
Here is a variation that keeps the same characters and basic structure, but twists the narrative beats and ending just a bit further away from the original movie:
Agnes is a dutiful suburban homemaker and mother of two whose world is defined by catering to her traditional husband, Louie. After quietly cooking and cleaning up after her own birthday party, she unboxes a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle given as a gift. To her surprise, she becomes completely consumed by it, eventually traveling to a specialty shop in New York City to find more challenging designs.
At the store, she answers an ad posted by Robert, a wealthy, eccentric inventor who lost his previous partner and wife. Robert is astonished by Agnes's lightning-fast, unconventional problem-solving methods and recruits her to train for a high-stakes national puzzle tournament. To attend their twice-weekly sessions, Agnes invents an elaborate cover story about nursing an injured aunt, while simultaneously trying to help her eldest son break free from Louie's career expectations.
As Agnes and Robert spend hours together sorting pieces, their professional partnership deepens into a passionate romance. However, unlike the original timeline, their secret is exposed much earlier when Louie accidentally discovers train receipts in Agnes's coat pocket. Instead of a quiet confrontation, Louie demands an ultimatum, forcing Agnes to pack a bag and walk out of her house mid-week to stay at Robert's estate.
With her domestic life officially upended, Agnes channels all her frustration and newfound confidence into the tournament. She and Robert dominate the competition, walking away with the national trophy. But the victory brings immediate complication: Robert has already booked first-class tickets for them to compete in the World Championship in Brussels, expecting Agnes to fully integrate into his high-society, jet-setting lifestyle.
Realizing that Robert's wealthy, controlling world is simply trading one gilded cage for another, Agnes decides to break the mold entirely. On the morning of their international flight, she leaves Robert waiting at the private terminal. Instead of boarding the plane to Brussels or crawling back to Louie, she leaves her puzzle career behind, boards a southbound bus to an undisclosed coastal town in Montreal, and finally begins a life completely on her own terms.
Cast
Kelly Macdonald as Agnes, Louie's wife and mother to Ziggy and Gabe
Irrfan Khan as Robert, Agnes’ puzzle partner
David Denman as Louie, Agnes’ husband and Ziggy and Gabe's father
Bubba Weiler as Ziggy, Agnes and Louie's older son and Gabe's brother
Austin Abrams as Gabe, Agnes and Louie's younger son and Ziggy's brother and Nicki's boyfriend
Liv Hewson as Nicki, Gabe's girlfriend
Release
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2018. Shortly after, Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film for $5 million, releasing it in the United States on July 27, 2018. Its release for Blu-ray and DVD sales took place on November 13, 2018, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Reception
Box office
Puzzle grossed $2 million in the United States and Canada and $235,611 in other territories for a worldwide total of $2.3 million, in addition to $19,979 from home video sales.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 82% based on 133 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Puzzle transcends its quirky premise with honest emotion – and Kelly Macdonald, whose nicely understated performance proves she's too often underutilized." On Metacritic, it holds a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Peter Debruge from Variety described the remake of the well-liked Argentine film as a way for "Kelly Macdonald to shine amid the yawn-inducing world of competitive jigsaw puzzling". Kate Erbland from IndieWire gave film a grade of "B+" and said that Macdonald "excels in the rare drama that follows a woman's own journey to self-actualization", and that the film "toes a tough line, managing to stay relentlessly good-hearted and deeply humane, even as Agnes herself plunges into deeper, more dramatic waters".
Jordan Ruimy from The Playlist said that the film takes its time "to let its characters breathe, building up a beautiful atmosphere filled with richly lit, eye-melting shots" by Norr. He noted that the script is eventually complicated by "a struggle to tie things up, if they should be tied-up at all".
