Rental Review - The Words

The Words (2012), PG-13, 102 minutes - Towards the end of last summer and into the beginning of fall two trailers for films starring Bradley Cooper started making the rounds.  Both looked to have intriguing plots and excellent casts.  The first to catch the eye of my fiance and I was this film, The Words, in which Bradley Cooper plays a writer tackling some ethical problems.  The second turned out to be Silver Linings Playbook (you can see my review here), and as we all know that didn't turn out too badly for Mr. Cooper.

I've been sitting here writing and re-writing this review for almost two hours now and am still having a hard time not spoiling the heck out of the film.  There's no crazy plot twist but it is presented in a way that makes it difficult to discuss without giving away key story points.  So I'm ditching the long, drawn out overview of the film that I had previously and I'm going to keep it short and sweet and hope that in doing so, I'm able to avoid being too spoilery.  The Words is about a young writer named Rory Jensen (Bradley Cooper).  He's newly married to his wife Dora (Zoe Saldana) and is struggling to break into the business.  After their honeymoon to Paris, he finds an old, un-credited manuscript and letter in a pocket of an old attache case that Dora bought him.  He reads through it in a single sitting, completely immersed in the story it tells.  Over the next few days he is totally consumed by the story, almost haunted by it.  He passes it off as his own and it becomes his big break.  He revels in the fame and the improved lifestyle as he becomes a best selling, award winning author.  No one has any idea that the words were not his own.  Until the rightful author, now an old man (Jeremy Irons) tracks him down.  The entire movie narrated to us by Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid), an older writer who is conducting a reading of his new book (the excerpts of which tell us Rory's story).

The Words has a good cast and the story, while not the most unique, is presented well.  The first half is a little slow, but once The Old Man and Rory have their sit down in the park, things move along fairly quickly. I will also say this: the resulting events of that park bench visit didn't play out quite the way I expected them too.

It may not have been the awards nomination grabbing role that Silver Linings Playbook was, but this was another good showing for Bradley Cooper last year.  I'd say that it is worth a rental if you're a fan of either Cooper's or Irons' or especially if you like romantic dramas.  It isn't quite what I would deem a 'chick flick' but it is definitely a love story at its core.

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