This film is not recommended.
Movies have always dealt authors suffering from writers' block and the desperate acts that lead them on the path of destruction. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and The Lost Weekend, the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink, Spike Jonze's Adaptation, and the granddaddy of all writers' block movies, The Shining, are prime examples of this theme. ( We can also add to that distinguished list: Deathtrap, Misery, Wonder Boys, and Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. ) That empty page can send anyone reeling! The heavy price of fame and blind ambition!
Now we have the drama, The Words, of which I am not at a loss at finding. Yes, I have plenty to say about this noble and unsatisfying effort that never really clicks. The film preaches that there is a fine line between life and fiction and the choices to be made, but the filmmakers never commit to make that clear choice and their final product blurs that fine line between concise storytelling and logical sense. Its story-within-a-story-within-a-story-within-a- story approach remains confusing and ambiguous at best.
Story One has successful novelist, Clay Hammond ( Dennis Quaid ), reading his best-seller to a devoted following. Aptly titled The Words, which may be autobiographical or a work of fiction, Hammond meets a mysterious fan, Daniella (Olivia Wilde ) there. This leads to...
Story Two, the main story, which shows an author's solitary life is not a romantic one, unless you're handsome Bradley Cooper who plays Rory, a writer who has difficulty with his next novel now. With the blank page staring back at him, he has not found any words, be they right or wrong, to create that next novel. The words somehow elude him. That is until one day when his loving wife ( Zoe Saldana ) buys him an antique briefcase which happens to contain a lost manuscript by another nameless writer, henceforth named the Old Man ( Jeremy Irons ). This, of course, leads our conflicted Rory to a moral and ethical crossroads and takes us to...
Story Three, in which a young WWII soldier falls for a French woman, played by Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezeder, who love and suffer as beautifully as they look. And suffer do we all in this predictable and conflicted romantic tale, as The Words tries to connect its various subplots about the past and present events with varying degrees of success.
Newcomers Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal solidly directed the film, but it is their work as the film's screenwriters where they lose their direction. The filmmakers essentially try to converge three separate tales into one multi-layered story, but the stories never become a cohesive whole. This writing team should have done some further editing and revisions, blocking their tendency to complicate their film with multiple narrative structuring. Perhaps if they would have focused and expanded on one central storyline, the film would have been more interesting and fulfilling. As it is, the multi-story arcs never bridge the gap and the moviegoer is left wondering about all the fuss.
Most of the actors deliver their lines with effective precision and add greater depth with their loosely written roles. Cooper, Saldana, and Barnes achieve credibility and have some strong moments, and Irons, with his acting formidable talents, brings a hint of tragedy and pathos that is missing from this sketchiest of character. His is a wonderful supporting performance in a film that needs all the support it can get.
Ironically, it's the written words from an ill-conceived script that cannot rectify and resolve the multiple story lines in The Words. Its cumbersome interweaving of its trio of stories just becomes a tangled melodramatic mess, ultimately leaving The Words rather tongue-tied. GRADE: C
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com
Movies have always dealt authors suffering from writers' block and the desperate acts that lead them on the path of destruction. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and The Lost Weekend, the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink, Spike Jonze's Adaptation, and the granddaddy of all writers' block movies, The Shining, are prime examples of this theme. ( We can also add to that distinguished list: Deathtrap, Misery, Wonder Boys, and Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. ) That empty page can send anyone reeling! The heavy price of fame and blind ambition!
Now we have the drama, The Words, of which I am not at a loss at finding. Yes, I have plenty to say about this noble and unsatisfying effort that never really clicks. The film preaches that there is a fine line between life and fiction and the choices to be made, but the filmmakers never commit to make that clear choice and their final product blurs that fine line between concise storytelling and logical sense. Its story-within-a-story-within-a-story-within-a- story approach remains confusing and ambiguous at best.
Story One has successful novelist, Clay Hammond ( Dennis Quaid ), reading his best-seller to a devoted following. Aptly titled The Words, which may be autobiographical or a work of fiction, Hammond meets a mysterious fan, Daniella (Olivia Wilde ) there. This leads to...
Story Two, the main story, which shows an author's solitary life is not a romantic one, unless you're handsome Bradley Cooper who plays Rory, a writer who has difficulty with his next novel now. With the blank page staring back at him, he has not found any words, be they right or wrong, to create that next novel. The words somehow elude him. That is until one day when his loving wife ( Zoe Saldana ) buys him an antique briefcase which happens to contain a lost manuscript by another nameless writer, henceforth named the Old Man ( Jeremy Irons ). This, of course, leads our conflicted Rory to a moral and ethical crossroads and takes us to...
Story Three, in which a young WWII soldier falls for a French woman, played by Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezeder, who love and suffer as beautifully as they look. And suffer do we all in this predictable and conflicted romantic tale, as The Words tries to connect its various subplots about the past and present events with varying degrees of success.
Newcomers Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal solidly directed the film, but it is their work as the film's screenwriters where they lose their direction. The filmmakers essentially try to converge three separate tales into one multi-layered story, but the stories never become a cohesive whole. This writing team should have done some further editing and revisions, blocking their tendency to complicate their film with multiple narrative structuring. Perhaps if they would have focused and expanded on one central storyline, the film would have been more interesting and fulfilling. As it is, the multi-story arcs never bridge the gap and the moviegoer is left wondering about all the fuss.
Most of the actors deliver their lines with effective precision and add greater depth with their loosely written roles. Cooper, Saldana, and Barnes achieve credibility and have some strong moments, and Irons, with his acting formidable talents, brings a hint of tragedy and pathos that is missing from this sketchiest of character. His is a wonderful supporting performance in a film that needs all the support it can get.
Ironically, it's the written words from an ill-conceived script that cannot rectify and resolve the multiple story lines in The Words. Its cumbersome interweaving of its trio of stories just becomes a tangled melodramatic mess, ultimately leaving The Words rather tongue-tied. GRADE: C
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com