Word Insanity

Wordplay (4/5 stars)

The ability of some of the the people in this movie to solve crossword puzzles drives me nuts. How can you possibly do a NYT crossword puzzle in less than 3 minutes? Am I that good at anything? Maybe Tetris. Otherwise, probably not.

In any case, this is a documentary about the New York Times crossword puzzle, its editor Will Shortz, and the annual tournament that surrounds bringst the fiercest competitors together. We learn the stories of several people who are obsessed and fascinated with creating and solving puzzles of any kind. Also shown are some famous puzzle addicts such as Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, and others. What is interesting is how different most of these people are from each other, how their backgrounds and lifestyles differ. What unites them is their unique (and perhaps overboard) fascination with words and the ability to solve insanely hard puzzles in very short time spans.

The footage is deftly edited to create a sense of fascination with the puzzle solvers, a sense of tension about who will win the eventual tournament (the person who I was rooting for didn't, alas), and humor is used well throughout the film as a good change of pace. So while not deeply profound or moving, how could something with this subject matter be, really, it is still an enjoyable watch.