"The Words" review

There can only be one word to describe the movie known as "The Words:" overkill.

An otherwise interesting and meaningful story, about a book that describes a story in which a young writer (Bradley Cooper) steals a story from an old man (Jeremy Irons), is bogged down by both excessive and excessively serious music, and too much melodrama.

The tale of the young writer, named Rory Jansen, is narrated by actor Dennis Quaid's character, Clayton Hammond, from his new novel at a public reading. Through this reading, and the inquiring of graduate student Danielle (Olivia Wilde), the viewer follows Rory's tortured artistic soul, as he struggles to make a name for himself in the literary world. After a reality check by his father (J.K. Simmons), he decides to get an actual job in a mailing room in a major publisher, in order to support himself and his wife, Dora (Zoe Saldana), while hoping to "make some connection" as he calls it. When the couple goes on a Paris vacation, which I have no clue how they were able to afford, Dora buys Rory an old work bag, which he later discovers at home holds a piece of writing from Jeremy Irons' character. Reading this, he comes to the realization that, as he put it in a melodramatic screaming fit to his wife, "I'm not who I thought I was . . . and I'm terrified that I never will be" (imdb.com). So, he steals the work as his own, and becomes famous.

Of course, karma finds him, when the old man confronts him. He has one of the most tempered performances in the entire movie, and I say that because there is hardly an ounce of comic relief in it. It's a dark tale about a lost love, a dead baby, and dealing with the consequences of your decisions in life. The problem with this story's delivery, is that the performances are too heavy-handed. The younger version of the old man wreck his entire apartment in a fit of grief and rage. Also, it would be nice if Rory tells Dora about her fears early on in the movie in a more restrained manner. He doesn't even bother trying to control himself. Did the directors of this movie hear the expression, "Less is more?" It would have delivered his emotions more sharply, allowing the viewer to imagine the kind of emotions fuming inside of him, as opposed to whacking the viewer over the head with a hammer, make that a whale, which the movie does quite too often.

In spite of its shortcomings, "The Words" delivers its message effectively enough. It just doesn't exactly qualify as a feel good movie, to say the least.

Final score: 7 out of 10

Sources: rogerebert.com and imdb.com