“THE WORDS” – MOVIE REVIEW

Rory Jansen’s (Bradley Cooper) rise to fame as an Author is sudden and he finds himself paying the price for plagiarizing a Novel he stumbles upon while Honeymooning in Paris with his Wife Dora (Zoe Saldana). The Novel’s original Writer, now an elderly Man (Jeremy Irons), confronts Rory on his actions, triggering a downward spiral which threatens irreversible damage to both his marriage and reputation. The lines between Fiction and Reality soon are blurred as we become enraptured by Rory’s internal struggle.

Written and directed by first-time Directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, The Words is a complex Story-within-a-Story-within-another-Story, which thanks to an excellent script and direction is told engagingly, nudging us along with just the proper dose of suspense. All eyes are on Bradley Cooper as he delivers us a subtle performance, completely believable as a Writer at struggle with himself and his craft. Jeremy Ironsabsolutely commands the screen with an intensity and conviction that fully embodies the self-crippling undercurrent of sadness and disappointment in his Character.Particularly good also are passionate deliveries from Ben Barnes and French Actress Nora Arnezeder as a young Couple in-and-out-of-love in one of the stories within the Story. Dennis Quaid meanwhile, keeps us guessing whether or not this is all autobiographical for his Author Character, Clay.

The Words is a thought-provoking piece about choices and consequences and perhaps furthermore, how the theft of ideas and intellectual property in essence voids us of our own creativity and self-realizations; a real Thinker’s Film. Alliance Films releases on September 7, 2012.