Taglines: There’s more than one way to take a life.
Three linked stories about writers are presented. The first writer is middle aged Clayton Hammond, who, at a reading of excerpts from his latest book titled “The Words”, is picked up by a young grad student named Daniella. In succumbing to her advances, he has to figure out if her motives in pursuing him are about him or something about the subject matter of his book. The second writer is Rory Jansen, the subject of Clay’s book.
After years of struggling as a writer, Rory garnered acclaim and success as a writer upon the publication of his first book, “The Window Tears”. That success allowed Rory to publish subsequent books written before he submitted “The Window Tears”, those subsequent books which are deemed not as good as too esoteric and internal. The issue is that Rory’s success is based on a lie, which neither his publisher or his adoring wife, Dora, know: he did not write “The Window Tears”, it a manuscript he found in a secret compartment in a old briefcase Dora bought for him in a Paris second-hand store. Rory was able to rationalize to himself the reason for taking the work as his own.
The third writer is the actual writer of the manuscript that Rory stole. That man was an American soldier stationed in Paris during WWII. It was one of his platoon-mates who got him hooked on literature. But it was a personal tragedy in his life with his French wife, Celia, and their daughter in post-WWII Paris that led to the emotions that allowed him to write the story, which was and is so personal to him because of it.
The Words is a 2012 mystery romantic drama film, written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal in their directorial debut. It stars Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons, John Hannah, Michael McKean, Lucinda Davis, Kevin Desfosses, Liz Stauber and Brian Klugman.
The Words started filming in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on June 7, 2011. The Montreal location was used because it could pass as both Paris and New York. The Words had its world premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Prior to its official premiere and following a press and industry screening at Sundance, the film was purchased by CBS Films for $2 million with a $1.5 million print and advertising commitment.
Film Review for The Words
Almost every word Ernest Hemingway wrote in the years immediately before 1922 was lost by his first wife Hadley, who packed the pages in a briefcase and lost it on a train. Hardly an American lit student lives who has not heard this story.
Hemingway’s lost prose lives on, in a sense, in the movie “The Words,” which opens with a writer named Clayton Hammond (Dennis Quaid) reading from his new novel in a Manhattan bookstore. But hold on. Don’t get ahead of the story. I know you’re thinking Hammond’s book is actually the long-lost Hemingway manuscript. But the movie adds another level. His book is about another novelist who finds the lost briefcase in a Paris antique shop.
Most of “The Words” is about that novelist. His name is Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), and he has a wife named Dora (Zoe Saldana). Dora is a famous name among novelist’s wives, but never mind. Her purpose here is to shoehorn a beautiful woman into the movie, which includes two others: Celia (Nora Arnezeder), a Parisian mistress, who is the one who leaves the briefcase on the train, and Danielle (Olivia Wilde), a graduate student who falls for Clayton Hammond at his reading.
The original novelist at the beginning of this series of events is known only as The Old Man (Jeremy Irons), and he is seen only when already Old. If you’re thinking of The Old Man and the Sea, don’t blame me. After Rory Jansen finds the novel and publishes it as his own, he finds himself in the park one day, having a conversation with The Old Man, who tells him the story of how he came to write the novel and lose it.
I doubt if either one of us could pass a quiz on that plot. It’s a level too many and sidesteps a more promising approach: What if the movie were about the real Ernest Hemingway discovering that his lost manuscript had been found and published by a stranger? That would eliminate the need for the Dennis Quaid and Olivia Wilde characters, provide an opening for some juicy Hemingway dialogue, and create an excuse for a passionate affair between Hemingway and the succulent Dora. Of course you’d need some time compression, because the various events in the movie seem to span perhaps 90 years.
“The Words,” written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, may sound like a movie about literature, but it isn’t. It ingeniously avoids quoting more than a few words from the Hemingwayesque novel, and although Clayton Hammond reads more from his novel, there’s no suggestion that we’re dealing with the Son of Hemingway, or even the Cousin Of. The movie does however slyly leave open the possibility that his novel is the story of his own life.
What does work are the performances, especially Jeremy Irons as The Old Man. He’s not as angry about Jansen’s plagiarism, as you might assume, and indeed the real Hemingway considered his lost manuscripts “juvenile work.” (In life, Hadley did save a few carbons, one of which was the short story “Up in Michigan,” which is a work of genius. We can only wonder what was lost.)
Watching the movie, I enjoyed the settings, the periods and the acting. I can’t go so far as to say I cared about the story, particularly after it became clear that its structure was too clever by half. There’s also an appearance by J.K. Simmons as Jansen’s father, not a very necessary character, but it’s funny how often you see Simmons playing someone in a movie and wish the whole movie was about him.
The Words (2012)
Directed by: Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons, John Hannah, Michael McKean, Lucinda Davis, Kevin Desfosses, Liz Stauber, Brian Klugman
Screenplay by: Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal
Production Design by: Michele Laliberte
Cinematography by: Antonio Calvache
Film Editing by: Leslie Jones
Costume Design by: Simonetta Mariano
Set Decoration by: Frédérique Bolté
Music by: Marcelo Zarvos
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language and smoking.
Distributed by: CBS Films
Release Date: September 7, 2012
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