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Product Description
Amazon.ca
It doesn't qualify as science fiction, but The Words offers almost as many layers as Christopher Nolan's labyrinthine Inception. In the framing device, bestselling author Clay Hammond (a very good Dennis Quaid) reads passages from his novel, The Words, about Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), a struggling writer whose fiancée, Dora (Zoë Saldana), sticks by him during the years he spends toiling away on his first book. Though he isn't without ability, he can't find a taker, so he gets a mailroom job with a publishing house. While honeymooning in Paris, Dora buys him a vintage satchel in which he finds an unsigned manuscript. After she breaks into tears at the beauty of the prose--thinking she's finally gotten a true glimpse of his talent--he publishes The Window Tears under his own name, and it becomes a literary phenomenon, but then a shadowy figure starts following him around. The Old Man (Jeremy Irons) turns out to have ties to the text, which centers on a young American (Ben Barnes) stationed in France during World War II, who loses his heart to literature and love (Nora Arnezeder) in ways both wonderful and terrible. The three story strands, which involve Olivia Wilde as an overly intense fan, mean to comment on each other in ways that don't always pan out, but debut directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal have crafted a smoothly suspenseful tale that couldn't be timelier in light of the plagiarism scandals that have been rocking the publishing world. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product Description
The layered romantic drama The Words follows young writer Rory Jansen who finally achieves long sought after literary success after publishing the next great American novel. There's only one catch-- he didn't write it. As the past comes back to haunt him and his literary star continues to rise, Jansen is forced to confront the steep price that must be paid for stealing another man's work, and for placing ambition and success above life's most fundamental three words.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
As I am currently embarked on writing a book I went to see this movie not knowing much about it and found that it unexpectedly resonated with me.
Briefly put it's a story within a story within a story. Bradley Cooper plays an aspiring writer married to Zoe Saldana. Life surely can't be that bad if you're married to Zoe Saldana. He sacrifices every other possibility to be a writer and finds that it challenges his manhood not to be living a life on purpose and struggling to succeed.
Everything changes when he discovers a tattered manuscript within the lining of his briefcase. It takes on a life of its own and everyone who reads it acknowledges it as a masterpiece. It enables him to get his other works published and he gets all the acclaim he ever wanted. Only thing is the story is not his and soon the real writer appears played by Jeremy Irons who gives one of the best acting performances I have seen all year.
A parallel story emerges with Dennis Quaid playing a writer telling the story played by Bradley Cooper which raises the question of whether it's truth or fiction and then we have the Jeremy Irons story within a story set near the end of WW2 in France and the events on which the book is based.
If there is one thing I learend from this movie the number one reason to write a reason a book is not for acclaim or money, but book groupies in this case amply played by Olivia Wilde. And if the book groupie does not pan out well one still has money and acclaim to fall back on.
How much of what a writer writes is imagination and how much is personal experience?
The Words poses that question and the answer is worth wondering about and I think the movie is well worth experiencing.
If the story has one weakness I think the resolve is too facile, there's no real test of conscience or dark side.
I think most people will find it thought provoking at least and I know most people think about writing a book at some point, so you may find some resonance with it as I did. Hope this was helpful.
Briefly put it's a story within a story within a story. Bradley Cooper plays an aspiring writer married to Zoe Saldana. Life surely can't be that bad if you're married to Zoe Saldana. He sacrifices every other possibility to be a writer and finds that it challenges his manhood not to be living a life on purpose and struggling to succeed.
Everything changes when he discovers a tattered manuscript within the lining of his briefcase. It takes on a life of its own and everyone who reads it acknowledges it as a masterpiece. It enables him to get his other works published and he gets all the acclaim he ever wanted. Only thing is the story is not his and soon the real writer appears played by Jeremy Irons who gives one of the best acting performances I have seen all year.
A parallel story emerges with Dennis Quaid playing a writer telling the story played by Bradley Cooper which raises the question of whether it's truth or fiction and then we have the Jeremy Irons story within a story set near the end of WW2 in France and the events on which the book is based.
If there is one thing I learend from this movie the number one reason to write a reason a book is not for acclaim or money, but book groupies in this case amply played by Olivia Wilde. And if the book groupie does not pan out well one still has money and acclaim to fall back on.
How much of what a writer writes is imagination and how much is personal experience?
The Words poses that question and the answer is worth wondering about and I think the movie is well worth experiencing.
If the story has one weakness I think the resolve is too facile, there's no real test of conscience or dark side.
I think most people will find it thought provoking at least and I know most people think about writing a book at some point, so you may find some resonance with it as I did. Hope this was helpful.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Sandi E. Muise
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
I liked The Words very much, other than the fact that I feel Dennis Quaid was miscast in it. I don't feel he has the range to play the part he was cast in, but that may just be my bias showing thru as I feel Mr Quaid is a good actor for certain types of roles, especially as he ages. In any case, his part isn't large enough to spoil the movie and I really enjoyed the storyline which was very interesting, and yet I found the ending quite ambiguous. I will have to watch this again in the near future and may change my review if I see it differently then. Thanks to Amazon for offering this film to all film buffs!
By Robert Gray
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
Good acting, plausable plot and well thought out script. I enjoyed it as a piece of escape after hard days work.
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