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Remembering Irrfan Khan – with love and admiration

‘Puzzle Review’: Kelly Macdonald and Irrfan Khan Shine

There’s no earth-shattering drama in ‘Puzzle’, the little gem which stars Kelly Macdonald and Irrfan Khan. It is the story of a quiet life, seeming almost the subdued resonance of the ocean within the confines of a seashell while the larger ocean roars by and the waves toss in the turbulent world outside.

Agnes, played by Kelly Macdonald, is a suburban housewife, devoted to her husband Louie and her two boys Ziggy and Gabe with no dreams and no aspirations of her own, no knowledge or curiosity of the larger world or larger issues. ‘Puzzle’, directed by Marc Turtletaub,  is adapted from the Argentine film ‘Rompecabezas’ (Spanish for puzzle) and hits a universal chord, that of the small enigmas of an ordinary life.

‘Puzzle’ begins with a family birthday party and you see Agnes involved in chores, toiling to pull the evening together, serving the guests. Only when she blows the candles on the cake do you realize that she’s the one whose birthday it is. Her life is a repeat, an ordinary day repeated every day. She is taken for granted by her family and she doesn’t know any other life – until she discovers the joys of a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Agnes receives this as a gift at her birthday party and is much more intrigued by it than the smart phone she receives. She puts together the 1000-piece puzzle effortlessly, realizing her own latent talent. It is the dawn of an ambition, a pride at being special at something.

When she hears of a puzzle contest and a call for a puzzle partner, destiny takes her to door of Robert (Irrfan Khan) an enigmatic puzzle master, inventor and suave man of the world. The door that Robert opens for her gives her entre into a larger world, a world of complexities and big issues.  She who has never left her quiet suburban home before  ventures into  New York, into the frenetic  teeming crowds of Grand Central and in that blur of multitudes you see one person and her modest dreams, one private life encountering a larger world.

The lovely Kelly Macdonald wears Agnes like a second skin and is so natural you feel she has always lived in that small home and been that suburban woman. It is fortunate for us that on the other side of the door is Irrfan Khan for he is a cinema-watcher’s treat. Khan plays Robert, a rich inventor, divorced, in a beautiful home, a puzzle master who in the long run helps Agnes find the missing pieces of her own life. She finally discovers her hidden strengths and talents and where she wants her life to go. It is an eloquent love story with a lot left unsaid.

As Agnes steps into this new world, her home world of set expectations and being the good wife becomes almost a burden. That world seems to have shrunk – and she now has bigger aspirations which her husband Louie cannot comprehend. The third part of the love triangle is David Denman who plays Louie, a hardworking auto mechanic – a good man who has his own expectations of life for Agnes.

‘Puzzle’ is just one episode in a life, changing it forever. Agnes finds her voice, her strength and the pieces of her life’s puzzle finally fit. ‘Puzzle’ is such a lovely understated film that you find yourself rooting for Agnes’ small triumphs and her slow journey which hardly seems to start. Irrfan is a delight – always different from film to film. It’s a story about self-discovery and the audience shares the journey.

The film is an engrossing watch with plenty of puzzle pieces to sort out for moviegoers.  The delight of seeing a new film is always the entre into new unseen worlds and here you get into the little known world of the jigsaw puzzle community in the company of two marvelous players – Irrfan Khan and Kelly Macdonald – a satisfying treat.

(Puzzle opens this Friday, July 27 in NY and LA with additional cities in August.)

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