Review of The Words (2012) by Lauren A — 08 Jun 2014

"The Words" starts with Clay Hammond(Dennis Quaid) reading from his latest novel that begins with an old man(Jeremy Irons) in the rain. But for the time being the story is more concerned with Rory Jansen(Bradley Cooper) who has just won a literary award. Of course, success did not come easy, as he faced perennial rejection from publishers and agents, having to borrow money from his father(J.K. Simmons) on more than one occasion. So, eventually Rory gives up after a fashion and gets a real job and marries his girlfriend Dora(Zoe Saldana). After which, they decide to honeymoon in Paris.

"The Words" is a good look at the randomness of success.(Otherwise, we already knew that writers are a bunch of egotistical bastards.) But unlike a lot of other movies, this should have been longer in giving more depth to some of the characters, especially Dora. Otherwise, the first two acts set up an intriguing story. It's the third act where the movie in trying to answer every conceivable question starts to break down. Now whether that's the movie's fault or Clay's fault is up for debate.(That flirtation with meta weirdness I think saves the movie from itself.) What's not up for debate is Jeremy Irons' weird performance as just past the age of 60 he ironically has no idea how to play an old man. However, I would like to go on the record and say I would pay good money to hear Dennis Quaid read from the phone book.