Wordplay - Reaction

A decent documentary about crossword solvers and the crossword championship. It does a good job showing the camaraderie these quirky, brainy characters have with each other. I most enjoyed the interviews with famous people (Clinton, Jon Stewart, etc.). I also liked seeing how crosswords are created. On the other hand, I found the sections giving background on the various contestants got a little slow/tedious at times. I'm not sure the film (despite the competitive nature of the subject matter) would interest people not into puzzles. (Richard Roeper warns that the film has a "heavy nerd factor.")

I liked the special features (factoids, snippets, colorful blurbs, puzzle profiles, music video) more than the movie itself.

If I bought DVDs, I'd be tempted to buy this one, simply because I think I know many people who would enjoy the contents. This is an odd thing to say since I've definitely seen better movies per se, but I think the topic and contents of this DVD are something special and distinctive.

Incidentally, the movie uses ingenuous/inventive graphics to show crosswords on the screen as contestants solve them.