Puzzle

As a producer, Marc Turtletaub has been cranking out one drippy and formulaic indie film after another since 2004, but the jumbled Puzzle is only his second stint in the director’s chair. Like so many drippy and formulaic indie films before it, Puzzle centers on a repressed and depressed person and their quirky obsession, and most of the movie’s pieces feel like they were borrowed from other boxes. Only a couple of likable actors keep the film from completely falling apart. Kelly Macdonald stars as the repressed and depressed Agnes, a sheltered Catholic housewife with a clueless husband and two growing sons ready to leave the nest. Ever since her debut role in Trainspotting, Macdonald has always been a welcome onscreen presence, and Puzzle offers the actress maybe her meatiest movie role yet. She finds the honesty amongst the inauthenticity of the script, even when her Scottish accent peeks out.