The Words

Putting Quantity Over Quality

By: Kara Maltby

For Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s first shot at directing, I think it is safe to say they attempted to create too much with The Words. Also the writers of the film, Klugman and Sternthal transition to a much different and more romantic narrative than their previous writing experience with TRON: Legacy. The result is an often enjoyable and thought-provoking yet somewhat convoluted story-within-a-story-within-a-story.

Bradley Cooper did not get away without some criticism for taking on a role in this film. I, however, was very pleasantly surprised he did as it has much more depth and emotionality than what he is typically known for, i.e. The Hangover, Wedding Crashers... I could go on. On the other hand, I do believe marketing the film as being centered around Cooper’s character was a mistake as Jeremy Irons’ character captured my attention in a much more compelling fashion.

The film begins with Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid) reading an excerpt from his novel about a young writer who steals a story and publishes it as his own while a beautiful and much younger fan of his, Danielle (Olivia Wilde), watches from the audience. It shifts then to the story of, apparently, this same young writer from Hammond’s book, Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), and his wife Dora (Zoe Saldana). Rory is struggling for money and confidence in his writing so when he stumbles across an old manuscript of a beautifully written love story, he claims it as his own.

The story is soon after published under Rory’s name and brings him instant recognition and acclaim. While enjoying his newfound success, he meets the man (Jeremy Irons) behind the true story and must learn to live with his own deceit. The film concludes with Hammond revealing to the viewer the result of Rory’s mistake, showing us what it eventually did to him.

The Words is a commentary on love lost, the inner struggles of dealing with regret, and the idea of art taking precedence over life and love. While these are honorable goals for film themes, I feel that it ended up being too much for one film and it just wasn’t possible for the writer-directors to fully develop each idea. 

I also don’t feel that each of my questions I drew from the film were answered. What ultimately caused Rory and Dora’s marriage to fail? What was Danielle’s story and motivation? Where did Dora end up? The film failed to acknowledge these details that, to me, seemed vital and was full of unanswered and unexplained questions such as these.

What was most frustrating to me, however, were the characters of Clay and Danielle. Every scene with them seemed like a completely different movie and felt incredibly unnecessary as they did not truly further the plot. The motives behind Danielle’s countless questions for Clay are also very unclear. While I am a fan of both of these actors, their purpose seemed only to be adding more appeal to the list of cast members.

When looking back on my experience viewing the film, I find myself going back to the character of The Old Man and finding him, surprisingly, more intriguing than Rory’s character. If anything, I feel that Rory was simply a vessel for the touching and emotional story of The Old Man’s experiences while the film was marketed as being the opposite. For that very reason, I would have liked to have seen either the film focused on The Old Man more than Rory or for there to have been a more in-depth character development for Rory. The Old Man’s character was developed more in thirty minutes than Rory’s was in an hour.

The best part of the film was, in fact, the development of The Old Man’s story, starring Ben Barnes. The fact that he wasn’t even given a name was disappointing. His story was touching and caused me to be very emotionally connected with his character. This was the only point in the film where I felt invested in a character’s life and cried along with them. Barnes provided a beautiful performance, despite his few lines. It’s amazing how much he could accomplish with so few words as opposed to the constant narration and questioning of the other characters. In addition, the lighting and music was very reminiscent and symbolic of how this story would haunt Rory for the rest of his life. 

Overall, I think the film was a great concept and is worth seeing but doesn’t quite succeed in getting its point across because of its over-narration and lack of a clear, confident, central focus. Klugman and Sternthal may have fallen prey to the characters of their own film’s mistake and gotten carried away with words, allowing them to reside over the actor’s performances and placing quantity over quality.

Written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal; produced by Also Known As Pictures, Benaroya Pictures, Animus Films, Serena Films, and Waterfall Media.

Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes

WITH: Bradley Cooper (Rory Jansen), Dennis Quaid (Clay Hammond), Olivia Wilde (Danielle), Jeremy Irons (The Old Man), Zoe Saldana (Dora Jansen)