Puzzle - EIFF 2018 Opening Gala review

This year's Edinburgh International Film Festival kicked off in style on Wednesday night with the Opening Gala film Puzzle by Marc Turtletaub.
It tells the story of a downtrodden domestic housewife called Agnes (played by Kelly MacDonald), who spends most of her time looking after her house and her family but she is sleepwalking for life and inside is screaming for more out of life.
When she receives a 1000 piece puzzle at her birthday party (which she had to organise and host herself), she discovers a passion and talent for putting them together.
Answering an ad for a puzzle partner, she meets Robert (Irrfan Khan), a divorced puzzle champion and inventor who is also coasting through life.
Will they find each to be the missing piece of their puzzle?
Unfortunately the film has all the right pieces to make for a cute and quirky romantic comedy but the filmmakers don't put them together in the right order and the end result does not look like it does on the box.
Kelly MacDonald is superb as Agnes, able to find the pain and pathos in the character and is completely believable and the audience know exactly who she is within the first five minutes and you are willing her to find happiness.
If this had been a film about Agnes finding her calling and growing in confidence through her training sessions with teacher and partner Robert, going on to compete in a competition (complete with training montage which is sadly missing), this could have been a terrific film. Like a female Good Will Hunting but with jigsaws instead of equations.
Instead, it goes down a tricky and uncomfortable romance and affair subplot that doesn't really convince as the chemistry between McDonald and Khan isn't really there.
Puzzles just aren't all that sexy and no amount of fingers accidentally brushing against each other will prove otherwise.
The real issue lies with the treatment of Agnes's husband Louie (David Denman). Yes, he is a bit boorish and takes his wife for granted but he is clearly a good man at heart and has just lost sight of how to appreciate her and show her love. Because of this, it doesn't feel like the affair is justified and lost this particular viewer at that point.
MacDonald's performance is as impressive as the feeling you get from completing a 4000 piece jigsaw but is ultimately let down by some puzzling story choices.

2 stars


Listen to an interview with director Marc Turtletaub on the Filibuster podcast on The Nerd Party.

EIFF 2015 - Opening Night Gala - The Legend Of Barney Thomson

Last night saw the 69th Edinburgh International Film Festival kick off festivities with its opening night gala premiere of The Legend Of Barney Thomson, directed by and starring festival patron Robert Carlyle.
Having missed last year's opening gala without an unfortunately timed and incredibly painful case of kidney stones, it was exciting and reassuring to be able to walk the red carpet in my tuxedo (which up until an hour before still had the tags on from its purchase last year!).
The film tells the story of Barney Thomson, a Glaswegian barber who is down on his luck and accidentally kills a co-worker who fires him from his job.
With a serial killer stalking the streets of Glasgow and mailing body parts of their victims to relatives, Barney's mum (a hilarious Emma Thompson) convinces him to ride on the coattails of the killer to get the police (including a dogged Cockney copper played by Ray Winstone) off his scent.
There are parallels to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (particularly with Ray Winstone in the film as he played the barber on BBC) but Barney is a much more sympathetic character, with the emphasis on the pathetic.
The psycho Begbie is nowhere to be seen here as when we meet Barney he is sad, alone and about to be fired from his job. Even then he can't seem to muster the energy or passion to fight back, only killing his co-worker by accident. Then his attempts to dispose of the body set off a hilariously awful chain of events that cause Barney's life and lies to spiral out of control, and Carlyle plays his sense of hopelessness and growing anger at his inability to change things quite wonderfully.
The sense of humour that runs through the film is as sharp as the razor that Barney uses at work. A lot of it comes from the situation that Barney gets himself into and a fair dose comes from Emma Thompson's turn as his ageing, bingo obsessed mother.
She delivers the "Glasgae banter" with aplomb and receives many of the films biggest laughs (although one does wonder if anyone outside of Scotland will understand what she is saying half the time).
The film's subplot about inter-departmental police rivalry could have done with a trim, or even a short back and sides, but Carlyle (in his first film as director) has delivered a accomplished tale of the macabre that should play well to audiences who enjoy a wild, wacky and wicked ride.
The Legend Of Barney Thomson was a cracking, crowd-pleasing choice for the new direction of the Edinburgh Film Festival and proved to be a bloody good laugh.

4 stars