Puzzle (2018)

Film: Puzzle (2018)
Stars: Kelly Macdonald, Irrfan Khan, David Denman, Bubba Weiler, Austin Abrams
Director: Marc Turtletaub
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I don't recall who it was (I think it was Katey Rich) on a podcast I was listening to who stated that Philomena was "a movie your aunt goes to," and I've since loved the term so much that I refer to such films as "aunt movies."  You know the type-the quiet, female-centered films with occasionally ribald jokes, usually about late-in-life struggles with marriage, sexual reawakening, and oftentimes featuring someone with a "Dame" in front of their names.  This is not meant to be condescending (I love "aunt" movies and see pretty much all of them), but I will say that Puzzle was misleading in this regard.  When I saw the trailer for it, about a woman struggling with her marriage who decides to team up with an unlikely partner to win a jigsaw puzzle competition, I wondered A) how such a film could be greenlit and B) if this was the quintessential "aunt" movie.  After seeing it, I realize that it explores topics much heavier than you'd expect from such a picture, and it's easy to see through Kelly Macdonald's bold work as Agnes why the picture ended up in theaters.  The only question I have is how it hasn't become a bigger hit, a question I should hopefully see a fruitful answer to this weekend as it expands to more theaters.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers on Agnes (Macdonald) a middle-aged woman living somewhere on Long Island (it's never 100% clear, but I kind of assumed based on the train stations), who has hit a plateau in her life.  She's the sort of quiet, introverted, deeply religious souls we're not used to being front-and-center in movies, typically these characters are on the sidelines, either for our bemusement or as condescending villains.  Her husband Louie (Denman) takes her for granted but clearly loves her in the only way he was taught how.  One day, after having an awakening from doing a puzzle that she received from an aunt for her birthday, Agnes goes into Manhattan to buy a puzzle (apparently there isn't a Target in Long Island), and becomes acquainted with a wealthy man named Robert (Khan), with whom she practices for a jigsaw puzzle contest, and they begin to fall in love in an affair reminiscent of Bridges of Madison County.  We see a growth in Agnes as a person as the film progresses, backing her forgotten (gay...he felt gay, right?) son when he wants to go to cooking school and standing up for her husband, and we even see some surprises, when Agnes eventually sides with neither man but instead seeks out to become her own person, finally taking a trip to Montreal after dreaming of it for so many years.

These final moments are played not for laughs, but as straight drama.  Indeed, while the film's trailer had a few "unlikely friendship" angles and really plays into the belabored puzzle metaphor, this is not a Philomena or Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, not your typical "aunt" movie but instead what was once referred to as a "woman's picture," where the lead character's journey and life is taken seriously even if it's about the culture of domesticity.  One of the best aspects of the film is that we are not given short shift of Agnes's troubles-these are real, and in many ways she's trapped in a life where she's financially dependent on Louie in a way where she only has limited freedom.  Even if he doesn't physically abuse her (which in a scene late in the movie, he acknowledges his father did to his mother), he emotionally takes advantage of her and treats her more as his maid than as his equal.  In a more conventional picture, they would have had her join Robert, the millionaire who "understands her," or perhaps had Louie find the error in his ways, but screenwriters Polly Mann & Oren Moverman instead see that Robert is just a different set of her being the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl," understanding him while admittedly receiving more respect in this universe and that Louie is incapable of changing to the degree Agnes needs after her reawakening.  The final moments, where she embarks on her own, work so well because Agnes is going to learn who she is by herself for the first time in her life, and the film doesn't shy away from the fear and risk that's involved in such a decision.

The movie lives-and-dies on whether or not Macdonald can carry such a complicated character.  As played by Macdonald, she doesn't over-emote or have a lot of expositional dialogue that doesn't feel clunky, so in many ways she establishes Agnes's moods through reactions, eye glances and clenched body language.  This is tricky, and in a lesser actor's hands she'd have to rely on the few big monologues in the film to establish her character for the full film, but Macdonald specializes in playing people on the sidelines, and has made Agnes someone we understand even before she gets her big moments.  It's hard to tell if Puzzle will make enough money to give Macdonald leading work, even on the indie circuit, but after over a decade of strong work in projects like No Country for Old Men and Boardwalk Empire, she's more than earned such a place in art house cinema.  Puzzle's supporting players are all fine (particularly Bubba Weiler as her misunderstood son), but Macdonald is the reason to see this movie, and while it'll continue to ring in my memory.