MOVIE
REVIEW: THE WORDS

09/07/12

SYNOPSIS: 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.
REVIEW: What a story, or should I say stories. For some strange reason this film reminds me a bit of Inception. Huh? That’s right. I guess it’s the story within the story within the story kind of thing that’s going on. It is well laid out and well told, each of them. The performances keep you even more intrigued. At first you might find some confusion but it will clear up soon enough. The opening premise is related to probably one of the most frustrating conditions for any profession . . . the struggling writer. In this case, he can write but it just doesn’t seem good enough to publish. This begs the question that has burned in me for as long as I can remember, who decides? Who decides what art is considered art? Who decides what music is good music? Who decides what literary works are good enough to be published and which aren’t? Isn’t it just a matter of taste by the initial critic? I am a believer of the expression, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, so imagine all the works we have not been able to enjoy because someone said no, not good enough. But anyway, back to the movie. Bradley Cooper is very good at playing a character in desperate situations, blood shot eyes and all. The movie Limitless is another example. In this movie we deal with a bizarre case of identity theft and it will eat at his soul.
This film is profound, sad, and tragic, and that’s in regards to practically all three stories. Believe it or not, in the midst of all that there is also romance, just a little darker, you know, not so light hearted. We also get a twist at the end that ties it all together. The only problem is that the movie does not have good closure. It ends similarly to how it began, with some confusion. But even so, the story as a whole remains captivating. The next best thing about this flick after the story is the acting. Besides Bradley doing a fine job with his role, his partner, Zoe Saldana, keeps up nicely. Arguably the best performance is given by Jeremy Irons. His interaction with Bradley’s character is intense. Dennis Quaid also gives us a relatively small but powerful role. His character has an interaction with Olivia Wilde’s character that is weird to say the least. Not that Olivia did a bad job with her role or that she was improperly cast, it’s the interaction between them that is awkward and a little out of place. Another great performance is given by the first time directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. Not bad at all for a debut. Wait, what is that I smell? Could it be Oscar that is somewhere in the vicinity of this motion picture? Could be.
Review
By Cine Marcos
cinemarcos@smartcine.com
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