Agnes is a middle-class suburban homemaker and mother of two grown sons, Ziggy and Gabe, who seem stuck with her husband Louie in a monotonous routine. She serves her family devotedly and without argument. After baking her own cake, and serving and cleaning up after her own birthday party, she finds herself drawn to a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle among all the gifts she received. She likes it so much she travels to New York City to visit a shop where she can find more complex puzzles. At the shop Agnes notices an advertisement that leads her to Robert, a former puzzle tournament champion who is looking for a new partner to compete in a championship tournament the following month. Robert is a wealthy and reclusive inventor whose wife and puzzle partner has recently left him, and Agnes is intrigued by their differences. He is surprised by her unorthodox approach to solving puzzles and invites her to meet twice a week to prepare for the national tournament, saying she is a gift from God. Agnes tells her family she needs to help an aunt who has broken her leg, lying every day while trying to help her eldest son discern what kind of life he really wants. She is frustrated by her husband's resistance and shocks her family as she begins to assert herself, declaring that she is going to the tournament. She keeps her relationship with Robert secret as she falls in love with him. After Agnes misses dinner with the family Louie finally confronts her and she confesses that she had sex with Robert, her puzzle partner. Ziggy makes her breakfast the day of the tournament, and she and Robert go on to win. Both sons cheer her on while Louie still struggles with how she has changed. After clearing out the family's old vacation home, which Louie has agreed to sell so the boys can pursue their dreams, Agnes decides not to go to Brussels with Robert for the international championship. Instead, she boards a train to Montreal, going her own way.
Cast
Kelly Macdonald as Agnes, Louie's wife and mother to Ziggy and Gabe
Irrfan Khan as Robert, Agnes’ puzzle partner
David Denman as Louie, Agnes’ husband and Ziggy and Gabe's father
Bubba Weiler as Ziggy, Agnes and Louie's older son and Gabe's brother
Austin Abrams as Gabe, Agnes and Louie's younger son and Ziggy's brother and Nicki's boyfriend
Puzzle grossed $2 million in the United States and Canada and $235,611 in other territories for a worldwide total of $2.3 million, in addition to $19,979 from home video sales.
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on 129 reviews, with an average rating of 7.08/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Puzzle transcends its quirky premise with honest emotion – and Kelly Macdonald, whose nicely understated performance proves she's too often underutilized." On Metacritic, it holds a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Peter Debruge from Variety described the remake of the well-liked Argentine film as a way for "Kelly Macdonald to shine amid the yawn-inducing world of competitive jigsaw puzzling." Kate Erbland from IndieWire gave film a grade of "B+" and said that Macdonald "excels in the rare drama that follows a woman's own journey to self-actualization", and that the film "toes a tough line, managing to stay relentlessly good-hearted and deeply humane, even as Agnes herself plunges into deeper, more dramatic waters". Jordan Ruimy from The Playlist said that the film takes its time "to let its characters breathe, building up a beautiful atmosphere filled with richly lit, eye-melting shots" by Norr. However, he noted that the script eventually is complicated by "a struggle to tie things up, if they should be tied-up at all".
