Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Movie Review: The Words

The poster for the movie
Okay, I know this is not a movie review site, but, I have been having a hard time posting on here and after my experience last night at the movie THE WORDS I really wanted to share it with my readers!

So back in the spring when they hold the annual Sundance Festival up here in Utah I was looking at pictures from the events.  I don't usually care much about the films because they are usually more racy or more artsy than I generally would watch.  But, I like me some fun celeb pictures and knowing who is here so close to home.

That's when I saw him!  My big celeb crush Ben Barnes (ie-- Prince Caspian).  Brittish cutie extraordinare!  And then I thought WHY DID I NOT DRIVE UP THERE TO STALK (I mean take pictures of or have a chance to see) HIM!?  Okay, I'm not that crazy -- I grew up in CA and saw celebrities fairly often and never freaked out over one.  I even served Jared Letto and Cameron Diaz ice cream once.

Ben at a red carpet for the Words, and a pic of him from the film.  Mmmm.
But the point was back then I had to see...why was he there?  Was he in a film?  And there it was on IMDB, THE WORDS.  Looked like a pretty good cast and it was getting great reviews at Sundance.  AND it was rated PG-13 so most likely I'd be okay with the content.  Cool!

I had to wait till now to actually see it. 

From the non-artsy community it is getting mixed reviews.  It is certainly not a blockbuster rom-com or even the standard commercial drama. Many people don't like the open ended ending, saying it's unfinished or felt that way.

Honestly, I think that was the point.

Those of us who are book lovers, and know anything about the publishing industry, I think will VERY much appreciate this film.  I connected to almost all 3 stories (yes, it is a story within a story within a story!).  And yet the one rooted deepest in fiction -- the Jeremy Irons as old man and Ben Barnes as young man -- was the one that I connected with the most.  I don't think that was a coincidence. 

It was an at times heart wrenching story of love, the love of words, and life.


Personally, I loved it. 

So there ya go.  A movie review to get me thinking that I need to neglect my book blog less now that my older daughter is back in school and baby girl is still napping.  

3 comments:

Jacob said...

I really enjoyed watching the movie. And yes, I think if you have a love for Words it is a must see movie!

Dan O. said...

Everything is sort of dull and uninteresting, until Jeremy Irons comes in and makes the film a whole lot more exciting with his act and back story, but there’s nothing else to it all that much other than that. Could have been a whole lot more thrilling if you think about it. Good review Aubrey.

Aubrey said...

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!

I agree that the old man's life story was the best. But I think that was part of the point.

That's where I see the dichotomy of the story rooted DEEPEST in the fiction being the most relatable, the most real.

The Dennis Quaid character we don't like, but he's the reality.

What I took from the conversation at the end between Dennis Quaid and Olivia Wilde was that yes, he was writing at least some truth about how he let his writing and his words get in between him and his wife in real life. And that led him to living in his fictional world where he could hold on to her instead of moving on. Olivia Wilde's character, although I don't like EITHER of the characters personally, her point was to question that and say...live in the words or move on with me, right now, and live life. They left it open as to what he chose.

The other stories were Dennis Quaid's character's way of living in his own world, and figuring out his own life.

The fact that he was the truest about life and love in the most fictional story really says something.

As someone who knows authors, aspiring authors, and has even dabbled at writing my own novels, I can connect to all 3 stories and enjoy the juxtoposition of them and really feel all of them.