# Puzzle (2018 film)
**Puzzle** is a 2018 American drama directed by Marc Turtletaub, in which [Kelly Macdonald](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelly-macdonald) plays Agnes, a suburban wife and mother in her early 40s who discovers a talent for assembling jigsaw puzzles and, through the hobby, begins to act on her own behalf for the first time.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) The film is an English-language adaptation of the Argentine film *Rompecabezas* by writer-director Natalia Smirnoff, with a screenplay by Oren Moverman and Polly Mann.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) It premiered at the January 2018 [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival), where [Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures-classics) acquired worldwide rights for a reported $5 million; Turtletaub, a veteran producer whose credits include *Little Miss Sunshine* and *Loving*, had previously made his feature directing debut with *Gods Behaving Badly* (2013).[2](https://www.thewrap.com/puzzle-sony-classics-acquire-kelly-macdonald/) • [15](https://www.romacinemafest.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Catalogo-Festa-del-Cinema-2013-Catalogue-Rome-Film-Fest-2013-ita-eng.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director | Marc Turtletaub, whose first feature as a director had been *Gods Behaving Badly* (2013); co-founder of Big Beach Productions[2](https://www.thewrap.com/puzzle-sony-classics-acquire-kelly-macdonald/) • [15](https://www.romacinemafest.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Catalogo-Festa-del-Cinema-2013-Catalogue-Rome-Film-Fest-2013-ita-eng.pdf) |
| Writers | Oren Moverman and Polly Mann, based on *Rompecabezas* by Natalia Smirnoff[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) |
| Lead cast | Kelly Macdonald (Agnes), Irrfan Khan (Robert), David Denman (Louie), Bubba Weiler (Ziggy), Austin Abrams (Gabe), Liv Hewson (Nicki)[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) |
| Setting | Bridgeport, Connecticut household and Manhattan, with a puzzle tournament in Atlantic City[3](https://www.fandango.com/puzzle-2018-211387/movie-overview) |
| Runtime and rating | 103 minutes, rated R for profanity and sexual content[4](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/puzzle) |
| U.S. release | July 27, 2018 per Reelviews; Fandango lists July 13, 2018[4](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/puzzle) • [3](https://www.fandango.com/puzzle-2018-211387/movie-overview) |
| Reception | 82% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (133 reviews); Metascore 66 on Metacritic (36 reviews)[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/puzzle_2018) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/puzzle-2018/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Agnes has spent her life serving others: her late immigrant father raised her in the same [Bridgeport, Connecticut](https://www.edgepedia.org/bridgeport-connecticut) house she still lives in, and she now cares for her husband Louie, a car mechanic, and their two grown sons, Ziggy and Gabe.[7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-08-29-marc-turtletaub-in-conversation-on-david-denman-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-and-mirren-gordon-croziers-costumes-for-puzzle-feature-story-by-anne-katrin-titze) The film opens at a birthday party that Agnes has cooked, decorated, and cleaned for, and only when the guests sing does it become clear that the party is her own.[7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-08-29-marc-turtletaub-in-conversation-on-david-denman-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-and-mirren-gordon-croziers-costumes-for-puzzle-feature-story-by-anne-katrin-titze) Among her gifts are her first cellphone and a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a map of the world; she assembles it twice in one afternoon.[7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-08-29-marc-turtletaub-in-conversation-on-david-denman-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-and-mirren-gordon-croziers-costumes-for-puzzle-feature-story-by-anne-katrin-titze) • [4](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/puzzle)
Wanting more puzzles, Agnes takes a train into New York City and answers a personal ad placed by Robert, a wealthy, reclusive inventor who recognizes that her talent outshines his own and recruits her as his partner for an upcoming jigsaw tournament in Atlantic City.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) • [3](https://www.fandango.com/puzzle-2018-211387/movie-overview) Each day spent puzzling with Robert takes Agnes further toward a new understanding of herself, and the assertiveness that follows finds her pushing back against the routines that have defined her role in the family.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) Reviewer James Berardinelli notes that Turtletaub keeps puzzle-solving in the background, using jigsaws as a catalyst rather than a plot device, and that the film never becomes a "jigsaw Rocky".[4](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/puzzle)
## Production
**Origins.** Producer Guy Stodel, a former acquisitions executive with experience identifying foreign films for American audiences, saw in *Rompecabezas* a strong candidate for adaptation, charmed by jigsaw puzzles as an unlikely instrument of self-discovery.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) The original follows a 50-year-old Buenos Aires housewife, María del Carmen, who discovers she has a gift for assembling puzzles.[8](https://www.recam.org/_files/documents/catalogo_2010.pdf) Sources date the Argentine film differently: Sony Pictures Classics and a 2010 catalog describe it as a 2010 film, while Christy Lemire at RogerEbert.com and The Guardian call it a 2009 film.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) • [9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/puzzle-2018) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/20/puzzle-review-jigsaw-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-edinburgh-film-festival) Turtletaub said he deliberately did not watch the original until after finishing his own film, and found the ending and family dynamic completely different.[11](https://moveablefest.com/marc-turtletaub-puzzle/)
**Casting.** Macdonald, known for *Trainspotting*, *No Country for Old Men*, and a five-season run on *Boardwalk Empire*, had largely played supporting roles; *Puzzle* was her first starring feature role.[2](https://www.thewrap.com/puzzle-sony-classics-acquire-kelly-macdonald/) • [12](https://www.salon.com/2018/08/01/kelly-macdonald-talks-to-salon-about-stepping-into-a-starring-role-with-puzzle/) Producer Peter Saraf suggested Irrfan Khan for Robert after imagining him opening the door in the scene where Agnes answers the puzzle-partner ad; Khan, coming off Bollywood studio films, was looking for a smaller, more personal movie and accepted.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) Turtletaub said he cast [David Denman](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-denman) as Louie specifically to avoid the stereotype of the browbeating husband, wanting a character who loves his wife but is oblivious.[7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-08-29-marc-turtletaub-in-conversation-on-david-denman-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-and-mirren-gordon-croziers-costumes-for-puzzle-feature-story-by-anne-katrin-titze)
**Design and shooting.** Location shooting ran approximately six weeks in the spring of 2017, filming family scenes first in Yonkers and then in the Manhattan townhouse serving as Robert's home.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) Cinematographer Chris Norr differentiated the two households through lighting and camera: smoke machines gave the Bridgeport house a sense of being frozen in time, while Robert's house was brighter.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) Production designer Roshelle Berliner hung metallic, reflective wallpaper in Agnes's home and stripped most furniture from Robert's house to convey his isolation; costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier moved Agnes from a 1950s-style birthday dress to more colorful, contemporary separates as the film progresses.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) Although the story is set in the present, the houses, costumes, and mores carry shades of the 1950s.[7](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-08-29-marc-turtletaub-in-conversation-on-david-denman-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-and-mirren-gordon-croziers-costumes-for-puzzle-feature-story-by-anne-katrin-titze)
## Reception
The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2018, and Sony Pictures Classics paid $5 million for worldwide rights, with ICM Partners handling the deal.[2](https://www.thewrap.com/puzzle-sony-classics-acquire-kelly-macdonald/) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 82% Tomatometer from 133 reviews, with a critics consensus that the film "transcends its quirky premise with honest emotion" and that Macdonald's understated performance proves she is too often underutilized; the audience Popcornmeter stands at 74% from more than 250 ratings.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/puzzle_2018) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 66 based on 36 critic reviews, categorized as generally favorable, with a user score of 7.2.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/puzzle-2018/)
Critics concentrated on Macdonald's performance. The Los Angeles Times called her work, alongside [Irrfan Khan](https://www.edgepedia.org/irrfan-khan)'s, central to the film's success, noting she had never before starred in a film.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/) [The Playlist](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-playlist) scored it 91 and praised the ending's simplicity, while [The Atlantic](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-atlantic), at 40, found it "often too prosaic for its own good"; reviews ranged from 91 down to 40 with no negative entries by Metacritic's classification.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/puzzle-2018/) Berardinelli, by contrast, called the pacing sluggish and the ending ambiguous in an unsatisfying way, while still judging Macdonald's performance Oscar-caliber.[4](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/puzzle) The Guardian's review, published when the film opened the Edinburgh Film Festival, described a modest yet touching drama that stays at the fringes of competitive puzzling, more compelled by character than sensation.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/20/puzzle-review-jigsaw-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-edinburgh-film-festival)
## Other films of the same name
A different South Korean film also titled *Puzzle* (퍼즐, *Peojeul*) was released on February 22, 2018. Directed and written by Lim Jin-Seung, it is a 90-minute mystery thriller starring Ji Seung-Hyun as a writer who wakes to find himself entangled in a murder, and it won the Grand Prix at the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival in 2018.[13](https://asianwiki.com/Puzzle_%282018%29) • [14](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?mode=INDEX_PEOPLE_LIST&movieCd=20179039&pageIndex=1&pageRowSize=10&peopleCd=20124877&searchKeyword=&searchType=ALL&strMenuId=010402&userId=) It is unrelated to the American drama.
## References
1. [PUZZLE, A Sony Pictures Classics Release](https://www.sonyclassics.com/puzzle/)
2. [Sony Classics Lines Up Worldwide Rights to Marc Turtletaub's 'Puzzle' for $5 Million, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/puzzle-sony-classics-acquire-kelly-macdonald/)
3. [Puzzle (2018), Fandango](https://www.fandango.com/puzzle-2018-211387/movie-overview)
4. [Puzzle (United States, 2018), Reelviews, review by James Berardinelli](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/puzzle)
5. [Puzzle (2018), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/puzzle_2018)
6. [Puzzle Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/puzzle-2018/)
7. [Marc Turtletaub in conversation on Puzzle, Eye For Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-08-29-marc-turtletaub-in-conversation-on-david-denman-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-and-mirren-gordon-croziers-costumes-for-puzzle-feature-story-by-anne-katrin-titze)
8. [ROMPECABEZAS | PUZZLE catalog entry, RECAM (2010)](https://www.recam.org/_files/documents/catalogo_2010.pdf)
9. [Puzzle movie review, RogerEbert.com, Christy Lemire](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/puzzle-2018)
10. [Puzzle review, The Guardian, Mike McCahill](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/20/puzzle-review-jigsaw-kelly-macdonald-irrfan-khan-edinburgh-film-festival)
11. [Interview: Marc Turtletaub on Putting It All Together with "Puzzle", Moveable Fest](https://moveablefest.com/marc-turtletaub-puzzle/)
12. [Kelly Macdonald talks to Salon about stepping into a starring role with "Puzzle", Salon](https://www.salon.com/2018/08/01/kelly-macdonald-talks-to-salon-about-stepping-into-a-starring-role-with-puzzle/)
13. [Puzzle (2018), AsianWiki](https://asianwiki.com/Puzzle_%282018%29)
14. [Puzzle (2018), Korean Film Council database](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?mode=INDEX_PEOPLE_LIST&movieCd=20179039&pageIndex=1&pageRowSize=10&peopleCd=20124877&searchKeyword=&searchType=ALL&strMenuId=010402&userId=)
15. [Catalogo Festa Del Cinema 2013 Catalogue Rome Film Fest 2013 Ita Eng.pdf, romacinemafest.it](https://www.romacinemafest.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Catalogo-Festa-del-Cinema-2013-Catalogue-Rome-Film-Fest-2013-ita-eng.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s*
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