PUZZLE Coming of Age Story of a Woman in Her 40s Stars Irrfan Khan, Kelly Macdonald - Phenomenal Pick

Dir Marc Turtletaub (b Amer 1946 "Little Miss Sunshine") puts together a picture perfect film with all the right touches.  Agnes (Kelly Macdonald b. UK 1976, "Boardwalk Empire") is the complacent Catholic housewife devoted to her husband Louie (David Denman) and two grown sons.  Everyone's role seems shaped in stone until a tiny shift in Agnes' life sets into motion seismic changes which chip away at the formed foundation.  The film begins with Agnes making preparations for a birthday celebration.  Ironically, all the planning is made for her own fete which feels melancholy & fractured.  Louie clumsily knocks over a china plate.  Agnes tries to make it whole again but finds there's a missing piece.  The plot is predictable and the metaphors appear scattered throughout.  Needless, the superb acting and delicate directing form a complete arch for a woman finding her voice, her heart and fulfillment in this phenomenal transformative picture.  Agnes' younger self-absorbed son Gabe (Austin Abrams, "All Summers End") gives her a cell phone as a gift.  She's reluctant at first to utilize it.  Another gift Agnes receives is a 1,000 piece puzzle.  She immerses herself in the puzzles of a world map and completes it in an afternoon.  The enigma is how was it possible for Agnes to be so sheltered from the outside world and so beholden to only her husband, sons and church.  The elder son Ziggy (Bubba Weiler) is sensitive & helpful to his mother.  The family's financial constraints didn't provide college tuition for Ziggy.  Louie brings his son into his mechanic shop where he is miserable.  Gabe, is filling out applications for college and depending on scholarship money.  Agnes worldly awakening & ephiphanies stem from connecting with Robert (Irrfan Khan b. India 1967) who shares her passion for puzzles and finding Gabe's college essay.   Both Khan & Macdonald give tour-de-force indelible performances.  Robert questions if there is any significance in coincidences, religious convictions or in irony.  As Agnes ventures into NYC to work on puzzles with Robert, unbeknownst to Robert, she begins to question her life, her obligations and her passions.  Bit by bit, she construes the true dynamics of her family members and all their assembled roles.  Agnes asks Louie "Isn't it just worth learning something to know it?"  The randomness in our lives can just fall into place or we can find what fits for ourselves.  "Ava Maria - maiden mild.  Tis thou, 'tis thou canst save amid, despair."  PUZZLE scrambles randomness, resurrection and rebellion into a wondrous journey that is worth following every fragment.