The Words is not a film you watch. It is a film that you endure. Despite two fantastic performances from Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Irons...the film falls flat at every turn. It is a story within a story within a story but two of the three stories are incredibly dull while the other story has the least amount of screen time.
The film follows Rory Jansen (Cooper)...an author who has permanent writer's block. While in an antique store...his wife, Dora (Zoe Saldana) buys him an old briefcase containing a story that Rory quickly claims as his own. It ends up that the story was written by The Old Man (Irons.) I kid you not....his name in the film is The Old Man. All the while....author Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid) is telling this story and The Old Man tells Rory the stories of the novel he stole. The Old Man telling his life story is the only thing that worked. Perhaps it is just because I got to hear Irons' voice narrating it but it intrigued me.
Where the film falls really flat is when Clay falls for Daniella (Olivia Wilde)....an aspiring author who is *somehow* in love with him. Clay is such a bland character and Daniella is such an attractive, interesting woman that you wonder if she is just playing him the whole time. As well...Cooper and Saldana never sell their chemistry...not even for a second.
The Words is not a terrible film. It is just a boring one. There are a few excellent individual scenes in it but even they are a swing and a miss in their own way. The film is so in one ear and out the other that I can not help but say unless you are dying to see it...skip it entirely. If you are dying to see it....wait until Netflix.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for brief strong language and smoking)
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