Think of Fort Collins resident Al Sanders as the Phil Mickelson of crossword puzzle tournaments. Which Phil – Augusta National or Winged Foot – we aren’t telling. We wouldn’t want to spoil director Patrick Creadon’s documentary delight “Wordplay,” in which Sanders proves surprisingly ready for his close-up.
Welcome to Will Shortz’s world. The lanky editor of The New York Times crossword puzzle and National Public Radio’s “Puzzle Master” serves as the linchpin for a revealing movie that revels in the realm of puzzlers.
Crossword aficionados from Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart to New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina, former President Bill Clinton to the Indigo Girls, share the ups, downs and acrosses of a day’s clues.
But it’s Sanders and his fellow ace competitors – Tyler Hinman, Ellen Ripstein, Trip Payne – at the 28th Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament,who turn out to be the movie’s unexpected quasars.
Recently Sanders came down from the Fort Collins home he shares with wife Eileen and their three kids to talk about what a short, strange trip “Wordplay” has been.
It began with a phone call from Creadon last year.
“Hey we’re doing this crossword puzzle film, and I’m interviewing some of the contestants before the tournament, getting their home life and stuff,” Sanders said, recounting that first conversation.
In the movie the Hewlett- Packard R&D project manager plays hoops with youngest son, Conor.
It’s a scene 13-year-old Grace now needles Dad about. “My daughter’s very mad,” he said. “Because the oldest kids had to go to junior high, they were out the door and on the bus before filming.” Every time Sanders mentions the movie, Grace adds, “Which I’m not in.”
Creadon came, he shot, he went away. “We didn’t think much about it,” said Sanders. Then the throwdown in Stamford happened.
But the director returned from the March 2005 event with cliffhanger footage. “Wordplay,” initially a bio-documentary on Shortz with a nice sideways peek into a subculture, now sported ESPN-style drama.
Even so, Sanders and his crossword cohorts “thought it might be this little thing on DVD.” Around Thanksgiving, an excited Creadon called with the news: They were in Sundance.
Being selected for the documentary competition of the nation’s premier indie fest was a turning point for Creadon and wife and producer Christine O’Malley. IFC won a bidding contest for the distribution rights to the movie. At nearly $1 million, “Wordplay” became one of the high-profile buys.
But being at the show in Park City, Utah, was a hairpin curve for the puzzlers. Creadon told his cast of characters they were the movie’s stars. ”
“I don’t think we really believed it, and then we got there for the premiere,” he said. “All of a sudden there you are up on the screen. ” Like other festival luminaries, they had an entourage of the trusted and a condo. “We called it the Puzzle Palace.”
Months and another buzzy festival later, it’s not swag bags or memories of nightlife that stick. It’s that first Saturday morning at the Puzzle Palace. “Will is literally sitting there watching me to see what my reaction would be,” he said. “It was pretty freaky.”
For those of you not familiar with this particular beast, the Saturday NYT grid can lock your brain.
So here was a question posed by someone who can work Monday and Tuesday’s puzzles – and half of Wednesday’s – to a guy who says he’ll know he’s lost his edge when he no longer can complete those puzzles in less than three minutes: How do you get better?
“I think doing a lot of puzzles is the way to get better,” said the 47-year-old who has unlocked the little squares since his Houston childhood. “Do one as much as you can. When the answers come out go back and look at them. Try to understand why did that work – which kind of gets your mind thinking about how to look at a clue in a different way.
“There was one clue a while back I loved. It was ‘refrain from piracy.’ You’re thinking to not steal music off the Internet. You’re looking at ‘refrain’ like a verb. Then you see it’s ‘yohoho.’ He beams with word- geek ardor. “Because ‘refrain’ is a noun.”
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-820-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
“Click” | *
PG-13 with extremely crude language and humor, sexual references | 1 hour, 35
minutes | COMEDY | Directed by Frank Coraci; written by Steve Koren and Mark
O’Keefe; starring Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, Henry Winkler,
David Hasselhoff and Julie Kavner | Opens today at area theaters.
