The Words (2012) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal

Starring:  Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde, Jeremy Irons, JK Simmons

Rory Jansen (Cooper) is a struggling New York writer whose manuscripts are returned with form letters from agents and publishers on a far-too-regular basis.   He wants to marry his longtime loyal girlfriend Dora (Saldana) and settle into a nice place where he can churn out bestsellers.   For the longest time, it appears such a dream isn't in the cards, until Rory and Dora marry and spend their honeymoon in Paris.  Dora buys Rory a weathered old briefcase in which Rory discovers a manuscript written decades ago hidden in one of the pockets.   He reads it and right away knows it is heartfelt and brilliant.   In desperation, Rory decides to pass the book off as his own and, voila, he is now the toast of the literary world and a world-famous writer.    But, as surely as night follow day, the real writer of the book (Irons) discovers the deception and confronts Rory on a Central Park bench. 

If The Words had stuck with this premise and followed it to its conclusion, then we would've had a potential gem here.   Alas, we find this plot is really the plot of a book written by another world-famous writer named Clayton Hammond (Quaid), who reads it aloud to a standing-room-only audience in Manhattan.   He has the apartment and life Rory has dreamed of, but it has come at a price which he gradually reveals to an avid fan and potential lover (Wilde) back at his penthouse.   Or has he?   The Words leaves the possibility open that the Rory stuff may be autobiographical, or just genius fiction.  Do we need to wait for The Words II to find out?

The Words is structured as a series of layered stories told one on top of the other.   When Irons' Old Man (he is never given a name) tells his story to Rory of how he came to write the book in post-World War II Paris, we realize half of the movie is someone telling a story about someone else.   As appealing as Quaid and Wilde are, their characters are unnecessary.   They rob the film of its power, which lies in the Cooper story.  

The Words is still involving enough and the performances work despite all the angles being thrown at them.   It's also a nice touch to see Irons not as a vengeful old man seeking retribution or blackmailing Rory, but as a man saddened by a turn of events which prevented him from publishing his own work.  In a way, he is somewhat happy to at least see his story out there for the world to see, even if someone else takes the credit for writing it.   Cooper's Rory is naturally faced with a moral quandary, but this is muted by the fact that his story his only part of the undercard and not the main event.