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Average User Score: 7 (4 sources)

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mgreen789

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Wordplay is the best crossword puzzle movie ever! When I was looking for a movie to see one day, and saw one with Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, and Bob Dole, and with the very interesting topic, I just had to go see it. Even though there were only...
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Wordplay is the best crossword puzzle movie ever! When I was looking for a movie to see one day, and saw one with Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, and Bob Dole, and with the very interesting topic, I just had to go see it. Even though there were only 5 people in the movie theater, and 3 after about five minutes, it was an interesting movie to say that I saw.

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Posted jan 13, 2007 12:20 am pt

• [+] Baltimore Sun
  
  91
  Near letter-perfect.

  by Michael Sragow | Read Full Review »
• [+] Charlotte Observer
  
  88
  When I first heard about Wordplay, I assumed I wouldn't have an ort of interest.

  by Lawrence Toppman | Read Full Review »
• [+] USA Today
  
  88
  If it's challenges you're after, forget cracking "The Da Vinci Code." Wordplay captures the exhilaration that comes from navigating the ins and outs of complex puzzles.

  by Claudia Puig | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  88
  It's also very cleverly edited - one scene will often branching off from another in much the same way a crossword puzzle works - and features a bang-up ending that will actually leave you cheering over a word game.

  by Ken Fox | Read Full Review »
• [+] Christian Science Monitor
  
  83
  At times the film resembles a promo for Shortz and the Times, and the celebrity puzzlers, who include filmmaker Ken Burns, Bill Clinton, and the Indigo Girls, have an unfortunate tendency to bloviate. Not so Jon Stewart, who seems to regard each Times puzzle as an opportunity to go mano a mano with Shortz.

  by Peter Rainer | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  83
  In Creadon's most effective and inspired sequence, he gets Reagle to create a puzzle using the film's title as its theme. It's during the sequence that we learn the lofty rules of creating crosswords, including lateral symmetry and a maximum ratio of black to white space.

  by Gianni Truzzi | Read Full Review »
• [+] Wall Street Journal
  
  80
  What's an eight-letter word for a non-fiction feature that is witty, wise and wonderful? "Wordplay."

  by Joe Morgenstern | Read Full Review »
• [+] Time
  
  80
  This film is as smart and funny as its topic and its stars.

  by Richard Corliss | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  80
  Whatever the documentary's flaws, the filmmakers should be saluted for giving us a rare glimpse of life in these trenches.

  by Phillip Lopate | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  78
  The fact that Wordplay works as a film at all is a testament to its skill. The New York Times may never find a better marketing tool.

  by Marjorie Baumgarten | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  75
  There's genuine suspense and a lot of humor.

  by Michael Phillips | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  75
  The film is made with a lot of style and visual ingenuity.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] San Francisco Chronicle
  
  75
  Opens up a world of words.

  by Ruthe Stein | Read Full Review »
• [+] Miami Herald
  
  75
  Manages to turn an internal, solitary activity into fodder for an engaging, even exciting movie.

  by Rene Rodriguez | Read Full Review »
• [+] Portland Oregonian
  
  75
  In breezy fashion, it introduces us to a handful of crossword savants, the history of crossword puzzles, a number of celebrity crossword addicts...

  by Shawn Levy | Read Full Review »