Movie Review--The Words

Interesting and thought provoking but not a classic

This movie gave me a headache, although I mostly enjoyed it at the time.  On reflection, however, I didn’t understand it all that well.  How can that be?

First, it’s three stories in one with three flashbacks (a little hard to follow). 

Second, it’s written in the modern genre of letting the audience fill in the blanks.

Third, the characters aren’t developed to the point where we know or care about them (maybe except for Rory’s teary, blood-shot blue eyes).

It begins with a mature man, Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid), before a large audience reading from his latest book titled “The Words.” 

Flashback to a young Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) receiving an award for writing his successful first novel “The Window Tears.”  Flashback to a couple of young lovers just out of college, Rory and Dora (Zoe Saldana) moving a mattress on to the floor of their loft where they can live happily after—Rory writing and Dora loving him—except it takes two years to finish his book.  The book is good, but not publishable according to those who publish books, partly because he is a new, unknown author.

Rory is forced to get a job with a publisher delivering interoffice mail.  He and Dora get married and go on a honeymoon to Paris (just a little trite).  While there they visit the former abode of Ernest Hemingway and explore a shop that sells artifacts from the period.  Rory finds an old and worn (but interesting) leather briefcase and Dora buys it for him.  Later at home, Rory still unable to write discovers an old manuscript hidden behind a flap in the briefcase.  This is the catalyst for the rest of the movie.

After the book is published, “an Old Man” (Jeremy Irons) sits next to Rory on a park bench and tells him his story.  Another flashback to just after WWII when a young American soldier falls in love with a French girl (Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezeder) in Paris and they eventually marry.  Their story is compelling but not all that different from what many others experience in their own lives (in my opinion).  However, the choices made by the couple are regrettable which is also true of the moral choice made by Rory. 

Clay Hammond (Quaid) is the puzzle of this movie although there are many clues to his identity.  He adds little to the plot especially when a “young, spoiled, American” girl, Daniella, (Olivia Wilde) is thrown into the mix.  Her purpose is one of the “blanks” that is nebulous to say the least.  Her only importance appears to be when she asks Clay if he wants “fiction or (real) life.”  I suppose that is about Truth.

If you want to be entertained on a long afternoon in a movie theater, expecting nothing and happy for something that is both interesting and thought provoking, this movie is for you.  If not, stick to the classics.