Review of Words and Pictures (2014) by Alex A — 30 Sep 2014

Very different American romantic drama directed by 74-year old Aussie director Fred Schepisi brings a very odd mixture of characters. It brings the vast experience of a winning director, a mature view of life and immature approach and reactions to events from that life in the story, excellent acting, and it almost seems like a tribute for a profession which started all other professions - teaching! I am glad that was screened in the Gala Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, but this is not Schepisi's best work - far from it!

The story background is happening at Croyden, a wealthy prep school in Maine that hires teachers for their advanced courses who are accomplished professionals. Jack Marcus is supposedly one of those - a writer and poet who teach the advanced writing class. He loves who he does, he is good in it, challenging and inspiring his students. Describing how good writing creates an image, like Haiku or John Updyke's descriptions, his students understand the significance of the words. But, despite being a published author, he hasn't written or published anything for years, and gets a writer's block when he tries to write. The school literary magazine, which is his pride and joy, is going to be axed for budgetary reasons, and this alcoholic, who arrives late to work and is on the verge of being fired, decides to fight. It is not easy fighting back when school hears that he has been banned from the local restaurant because of his drunken behaviour and his adult son from his marriage becomes estranged because of Jack's drinking and irresponsibility... Jack still does it, with a very unlikely partner!

I think that we would all have difficulty finding a romantic drama these days with such less sympathetic characters as Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) and Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche). Old fashioned directing felt very comfortable but the odd thing here was the screenplay. At the end felt like few life moments put together for some eulogy not a carefully edited artistic creation - mainly because of the very unconventionally structured screenplay. It seems that t the end I enjoyed it, but my thoughts are that this could be an outstanding film if the screenplay was different.