“The Words” follows a story within a story of a writer (Bradley Cooper) who plagiarizes a novel. The novel becomes a best-seller and an award-winner, leaving the would-be author to deal with his choices.
The plagiarizer, Rory Jansen, may notice the same things happening in his life as the one in the novel.
A treasure is lost, which dissolves a marriage, etc, etc, right down to washing the dishes.
It’s a good story, and is told well. The cinematography all points to a great dramatic conclusion, but ends rather abruptly. The plot is original, but for all its complexity fails to deliver on its promise of deep, gut-wrenching emotional questions. However, this didn’t stop it from holding my attention until the less-bitter-than-expected end.
In case you couldn’t pick up on the mirroring yourself, they’re careful to include plenty of migraine-inducing flashback scenes that pretty much copy motion-for-motion the one five seconds before it. Eventually, the real author of the novel (Jeremy Irons) appears in his homeless finery to make Jansen feel horrible about himself.
The “old man” doesn’t want money or public credit. He’s not out to seek revenge or destroy Jansen, or anything else to add thrill to the story. He just wants Jansen to feel deep inside that he’s a bad person. Oh well.
Oh, and of course Rory Jansen’s story is a novel, too. He’s a character made up by a best-selling author (Dennis Quaid) who is in the middle of reading his book to an eager crowd, including a sexy and mysterious graduate student (Olivia Wilde) who decides to go home with her favorite author. When she gets there, she decides to start interrogating him about what is already obvious to anyone who has ever seen a movie before: the Quaid author has plagiarized a novel.
Finally, Wilde’s character demands to know the end of the story. The author reports what he has written; Jansen is unable to reconcile with his wife after admitting his lie. The student refuses to accept this, instead demanding an answer to the big question: Can lost trust be regained?
The film does an excellent job of not answering that question. It’s really left up to the audience. The final scene shows Jansen and his wife cuddling in bed, trying to make amends, but with obvious questions in their hearts.
The film certainly wasn’t bad, and I’m glad I saw it. The plot was interesting, and the actors did well.
Really, for all the gut-wrenching agony inherent in the storyline, I’m shocked that there wasn’t more punch to the telling. Perhaps the directors tried to be a bit too artistic, and forgot what they’re really there for -telling a story to an audience who is too “young, spoiled, impetuous, and American” to read a book.
Check out the movie trailer for “The Words.”
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