Puzzle

okay movie

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie with its offbeat but likable characters. Kelly Macdonald was marvelous in her role. Excellent music and production quality. Acting performances were also quite good. It has a great heart and everything was handled in a beautifully subtle unrushed manner. However, the disappointing ending leaves you hanging.

Stilted, directionless, and uncomfortable. Nicely shot, though.

Ain't no puzzle here, just a nice little drama with an absolutely pointless, obscure, irksome ending. I was thinking it was an 80 until that, and I probably should have docked it more. I mean, it was like they were rubbing it in...Montreal??? WTF?! A stand-in for Paris without the frogs and idiotic immigration policy? As dumb as the name of the baseball team that moved out from there from shame at its name, the Expos.

I saw Puzzle five days after seeing Juliet, Naked, and they are nice complements. Both feature middle-aged women questioning their choices, wondering if it’s not too late for a do-over on some of them. I like both, but I like Puzzle quite a bit more. Whether it’s because of its puzzles theme, because it’s considerably more anguished, or because it leaves a bit more to the viewer to interpret doesn’t really matter to me; it’s probably all three.