Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
More than fifty million Americans do crossword puzzles each week and many of them gravitate towards the puzzle presented by the esteemed New York Times. This documentary provides a glimpse at how these language labyrinths are created.System Requirements:Run Time: 90 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 796019796156 Manufacturer No: 79615

Amazon.com:
The linguistic ballet of the crossword puzzle and the obsessive minds that wrestle with them are a source of delight in the charming documentary Wordplay. Though there's no story, the movie has a definite hero: Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of crosswords. Shortz comes across as clever but modest; though he's at the top of his particular world, he retains a bemused perspective on that world's limitations. Though speckled with celebrities from former President Bill Clinton to the Indigo Girls, the most engaging interviews are with puzzle creator Merl Reagle (who gives a fascinating on-screen demonstration of how he starts making a puzzle) and the witty and garrulous commentary by the former public editor for the Times, Daniel Okrent. Like many recent documentaries, Wordplay is built around a competition: The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual event started by Shortz and embraced by people who have devoted an alarming amount of their brain space to filling squares with letters. Though the movie is not as emotionally involving as Spellbound--still the ne plus ultra of nerdy documentaries--Wordplay's window into its particular subculture will be enjoyable to non-crossword fans as well as committed puzzleheads.--Bret Fetzer

Rating : - Entertaining film on an unfilmable subject . . .
This is probably a film for crossword fans, though anyone who has ever wondered about people who seem hooked on crosswords will find this documentary a bit of a revelation, too. There are surprising moments in the film - first about things you take for granted. Where did crosswords come from and what are the underlying "rules" of creating crosswords? How does someone create a crossword? Who is responsible for the daily NY Times crosswords, and how did that get to be a real job? Then there are curious discoveries, like the obsession with time, and detours into subjects like whether a computer could ever be taught to do crosswords.

Structurally, the film is a lot like a crossword in the way its various story lines intersect. To show, I guess, that crosswords are not just for nerds, there are celebrity appearances from the Indigo Girls to Ken Burns to Bill Clinton. And finally there's coverage of the annual national crossword tournament in Stamford, CT, where you marvel at the hyped up drama and the complexities of the competition and the scoring itself - the playoff between the 3 highest scorers, wearing noise-producing headphones, is performed on stage before an audience. How did that evolve? Anyway, for novelty it's hard to beat this entertaining documentary about a basically unfilmable subject, and it may even get you trying the next crossword you see, just to see what all the excitement is about.