Word Wars

Muh wife and I sat down to watch a unique documentary yesterday. It was called Word Wars and it followed four of the world's top Scrabble players for nine months as they prepare for the national Scrabble championship.

You may already be shaking your head wondering how can that be interesting...so did we...

We read a few reviews and with the experience of Spellbound! under our belts, we thought it might be a fun movie to watch. Who doesn't love to watch people with so much drive and intensity?

And... they were nerds.

As the beginning credits rolled, I asked muh wife... "Do you consider yourself a nerd?" She replied with "Yes..." I said... "Good... I can now refer to muh wife as a self professed nerd."

We laughed... and thought it was funny -- me more so than her.

As the movie progressed, our opinions of the nerds in the movie began to change. Instead of being endearing and someone to root for, I began to dislike three of them... a lot.

The movie is a fascinating look into the world of three extremely different and driven men. The fourth guy is a former national champion who is completely boring yet they left him in the movie. The first three men include an inner city and self destructive fella, a man who suffers from gastrointestinal problems so he literally sits there with bottles of Maalox flanking him, and a souped up oddball who is always pouring down Starbucks or eating sugar while working out.

I got most annoyed at them as I saw more and more of who they were. They were loners who have a common interest. They compete in tournaments for cash and have the drive to be the best. When they lose, they always have excuses and when they win, they don't think they do well enough.

One of the most poignant scenes is when a group of the Scrabble freaks take a finished game out into the lobby of the hotel the tournament is in and analyze what players could have done differently for a possible outcome. They are laughing and screaming at each other offering different ideas. What makes the scene so powerful is that they have no regard for anything else going on around them. A beautiful bride is pretty close to them and is preparing for an entrance of some kind and can't focus because of these guys. Their attention to the game (their life) is so apparent that those around them suffer.

Their intensity and drive evaporated for me. I began to view them as jerks. Simply put... jerks. They were unable to converse with anyone without speaking to them as though they were idiots. They acted like children and stormed out of rooms in defeat.

Just unpleasant jerks...

Well... the end of the movie finally came and we smiled... thankful that it wasn't us on the screen. We also recognized that it was a great movie and we recommend it to anyone who wants to see it. It told an interesting story of personalities.

But... it is best summed up by a comment muh wife made pretty much right after the movie was over...

"Ummm... I don't think I can call myself a nerd anymore..."