The Words

Hmmm.... A thought-provoking adult film for grown-ups. Whatever will they think of next? You'll want to pay close attention, because even the intricately plotted back story has a back story, which is appropriate because this is a movie about writers. It's fascinating to watch it unfold.

Not only do directors Lee Sternthal and Brian Klugman play minor characters in this movie, they also share screen-writing honors. In it, a striving author is confronted with fame and fortune after a manuscript he claims as his own enjoys mammoth success. Now he has to deal with the potential pain and shame of exposure; this PG-13 drama is inspired by a couple of notorious plagiarism cases in the recent past.

Some of these characters are supposed to be real:

• Bradley Cooper ("Hit and Run") is Rory, our writer, who may or may not be fictitious.
• Zoë Saldana ("Columbiana") is Dora, the gal Rory loves and marries.
• Jeremy Irons ("Margin Call") is The Old Man, who appears in Rory's life, claiming authorship of a long-lost book.
• Ben Barnes ("Dorian Gray") is The Young Man, a WWII soldier featured in that best-selling book.
• Nora Arnezeder ("Paris 36") is Celia, the lovely Parisian with whom our WWII hero falls in love.
• Dennis Quaid ("Footloose") is Clay Hammond, an author who is promoting his book which tells the story of Rory, Dora, Celia, a WWII soldier and an Old Man.
• Olivia Wilde ("The Change-Up") is Danielle, the doctoral candidate who will be writing her dissertation about Clay Hammond and his fiction.

We left the theater discussing whether or not we had seen a story about a book that is about a book, or.... Hmmm.... When you see it, please let me know what you think. It is beautifully done and everyone does a perfectly splendid job. No gunshots, no vehicular mayhem, no blowie uppie stuff and no sweaty bodies, but we were entertained despite those glaring defects...smile...

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Here is a link to a preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi663332121/
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