Wordplay
Release Date: June 16, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Near letter-perfect. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
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. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
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. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
When I first heard about Wordplay, I assumed I wouldn't have an ort of interest. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
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. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerGianni Truzzi
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. Read full review
80
The New York TimesPhillip Lopate
Whatever the documentary's flaws, the filmmakers should be saluted for giving us a rare glimpse of life in these trenches. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
This film is as smart and funny as its topic and its stars. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
What's an eight-letter word for a non-fiction feature that is witty, wise and wonderful? "Wordplay."
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
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. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
The film's subjects are almost uniformly likable, self-deprecating, funny, and hyper-verbal, and their peculiar passion for crosswords and the sense of genial camaraderie among buffs proves surprisingly infectious. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
There's more palm-sweating suspense in one minute of this baby than in all of "The Omen." Read full review
75
PremiereEthan Alter
Ultimately, Wordplay is best enjoyed as an engaging look at a little-known subculture. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
In this documentary, I learn there are people who can solve a Monday New York Times puzzle in less than three minutes - without looking words up! I don't necessarily want to know these people, but they put on a good show at the annual crossword championship in Stamford, Ct., which is the centerpiece of this affectionate, smartly-done promo for puzzling. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Shortz's gentle manner and French-foreign-agent mustache go a long way toward making him a thinking girl's pinup nerd - and this despite the man's pitiless insistence on making the Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle ''tough as a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'' Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
As someone who has never completed a crossword puzzle, I was surprised how engaged I was by Wordplay. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
It's light, it's bright and it succeeds precisely where the lesser doc fails -- by setting modest targets and hitting them square on. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
There's genuine suspense and a lot of humor. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film is made with a lot of style and visual ingenuity. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Opens up a world of words. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
In breezy fashion, it introduces us to a handful of crossword savants, the history of crossword puzzles, a number of celebrity crossword addicts... Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Manages to turn an internal, solitary activity into fodder for an engaging, even exciting movie. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
While puzzles are not most peoples' lives, they are truly an essential part. Wordplay goes up/down and across on the varied reasons why more than 50 million Americans do a crossword puzzle every week. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin Chang
Punsters, linguists and crossword puzzle fanatics everywhere couldn't ask for a more bracing tribute than helmer Patrick Creadon's buoyant and exhilaratingly brainy documentary Wordplay. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Niceness also takes the edge off Patrick Creadon's otherwise revitalizing documentary. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Another doc sharing some of its cultural DNA, the spelling-bee melodrama Spellbound, had children, families, social conventions--Creadon's film has only words and people with a little time to waste. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
At its best when Creadon is burrowing deep into the world of the puzzles themselves, particularly when he sits down with puzzle constructor extraordinaire Merl Reagle. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
Mostly it's just a sweet and lightly funny piece of highbrow piffle, as enjoyable as it is forgettable. There's no harm done, but there's not much else either. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Wordplay offers a running tutorial in how crosswords are created - lessons that are enhanced by the onscreen graphics of designer Brian Oakes, which, come tournament time, allow moviegoers to see the clues and grids the contestants are working on, theoretically allowing us to solve the puzzles along with them. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Creadon and his editor, Douglas Blush, add verve to an otherwise talky exercise by cutting Wordplay as if it were a puzzle itself, with Across and Down camera moves and blocks of black space. A visual pun altogether worthy of those being filled in on screen. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Delightful. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
In segments such as the Reagle and Clinton interviews, where character is revealed via puzzle style, Wordplay succeeds. The film is less successful when it travels to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Sweet, indulgent, and surprisingly soft in the center; the most minor entry in the brainiac-doc genre to date, it's nevertheless a perfectly entertaining hour and a half for crossword adepts. Read full review
60
Film ThreatEric Campos
Wordplay is...well...just about as exciting as a feature length movie about people solving crossword puzzles can be. Not very. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This is mildly entertaining, though like the puzzles themselves, it favors diversion over wisdom. Read full review
More From This Movie

73 Critic Reviews

6.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL