Review of The Words (2012) by Indiefilmlover — 10 Sep 2012

"The Words" is by no means a great film, but it is not a dreadful film either. It tells the story of a struggling writer (Bradley Cooper), who is faced with the choice to pass off another writer's novel as his own. Because so much of the story rests on the writer's thoughts and not on his external actions, the material does not lend itself well to a visual medium like film. Also in a day and age where publishing is dominated by nonfiction, novelizations of movies and genre fiction, it's hard to image someone risking so much in the pursuit of wealth and fame as a novelist of literary fiction. Rather than pass a novel as his own, more likely someone would use a novel as the basis for a screenplay, where it could be potentially sold for a substantial amount of money. With rare exceptions, the goal from the sale of literary fiction would more realistically lead to a professorship at a prestigious university.

However, given the limitations of the story, the filmmakers do their best to make it visual and to subvert expectations. In other words, the story doesn't always go into an obvious direction, but without going into specifics, it doesn't always follow a logical path.

For those yearning for something a bit smarter than the average mass market pictures, "The Words" is worth consideration. The cast including Cooper do a good job given the limitations of the material. Zoe Saldana is totally underutilized in the film. She is relegated to the "supportive wife" role where most of her scenes involve her either flirting or encouraging her beau in some way.