Araucaria

Araucaria was the pseudonym for Rev John Galbraith Graham, who for many decades was one of the constructors of the cryptic crosswords (Araucaria being the Latin name for the Monkey Puzzle Tree). This short film was made before his death as a tribute to him and his work.

In doing this, the film offers a chance at quite the emotional impact, and the clever structure (around the crossword where the solutions reveal he had cancer) is a nice touch. Thing is, the film is almost too polished and respectful to its subject. The film is presented with very steady, patience movement, glossy finish, and it does make the presented feel surprisingly flat. There was not a lot of grit in here, no really intriguing aspects, and instead it seemed content to sit back and draw in a good long breath of contemplation of the craft, without too much about what it entailed or personal information around it. It does give some of this, probably enough to carry the film along, and there was a certain amount of affection and warmth that comes from a professionally craft piece such as this, I just felt myself wanting to be moved a bit more, maybe have some rougher edges to the presentation to add to the feeling of the human touch.