Poor Bradley Cooper. Hollywood’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2011 (according to People magazine) had to executive produce his own films (this, and last year’s portentous thriller Limitless) to land serious roles. Certainly no-brainer stints in films like The A-Team and Hit & Run aren’t earning the guy any serious acting cred; hence this, a semicredible morality tale about a writer wrecked with guilt over undeserved success. The story-within-a-story film narrative has been done to death and in The Words, the switch between past and presentand of parallel lives proves to be a little obvious, although the main thrust of the story is mildly compelling. After consistently failing to get his work published, aspiring writer Rory Jansen discovers an unpublished manuscript that he finds so inspiring, he decides to type it into his laptop word for word. In the throes of existential angst and to please his supportive wife Dora (Zoe Saldana), he claims the work as his own and becomes famous after getting it published. Hot on the heels of this comes the inevitable—the true author (Jeremy Irons) reveals himself to Rory and tells him about the events that led to the writing of it (cue dramatic flashbacks). Rory’s world soon begins to unravel as he grows increasingly conscious of his guilt, knowing that revealing the truth will ruin Dora’s trust forever. Parallel to this story is that of Clay Hammon (Dennis Quaid), who wrote the novel that is Rory’s story. While at a public reading, Clay is being stalked by sexy graduate student Daniella (Olivia Wilde)—a useless plot device that makes The Words thoroughly hackneyed.
Although the links fall apart midway through the film, our two leads are superb in their roles. Cooper as Rory is subtle and sensitive (those piercing blue eyes do half the work), while Irons is still at the top of his game as the embittered, cranky old man. Quaid, however, looks tired in an almost non-consequential entry, while Saldana and Wilde just flutter their eyelashes and act coy in very underdeveloped roles. And by the time the whole thing climaxes, you wouldn’t even know it—there is very little emotional catharsis or any real substance in The Words’ overall proceedings. Cooper, on the hand, should be thankful that this is his best role to date. Terry Ong