The Words: A Film About Authors
- Diana Kathryn
- Sep 29
- 3 min read
September 2025
Occasionally, I take a break from editing, writing, and reading books to enjoy a film. I try to find stories that will touch the creative part of me, and that usually means that I tend to watch films that are outside popular, mainstream media, and by the time I get to them, they're a few years old. Such is the case with my latest indulgence, The Words.
The film features Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Zoe Saldana, and Jeremy Irons. It was released in 2012 and received 7/10 from IMDb and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 24%. I'm so glad that my choices of what films to watch aren't based on these "critical" scores. If they were, I would have missed this incredibly entertaining film. Lucky me! Also, the fact that Jeremy Irons is in it makes it a requirement for me to watch. I don't think I've seen one of his films that I haven't enjoyed.
The synopsis...This story is about the emotional and intellectual choices we make as authors, and how those choices emerge on the page, and in our lives.
Well, that was cryptic. Let's see if I can do better without giving too much away...
This is a story told in layers... three of them, although there are more than that, if you really watch and listen carefully. Imagine, if you will, an Author giving a reading at a college campus, to a packed lecture hall. He's incredibly successful, and everyone is very eager to hear a bit of his latest book. So, he begins to read.
The story the Author reads is about a Writer who wants desperately to become a successful author. This person borrows a found manuscript, lost for years, and publishes it in an attempt to realize his dream. The manuscript is a tragic tale, set in Paris, in 1944, about the obsession of writing, loss, and love. It's tender, powerful, and insightful.
After the book is published, the manuscript's author, now an Old Man, finds the writer who stole his words and confronts him. Because of this meeting, the Writer comes to regret his choices, and he begins to understand the power of words, the sin of plagiarism, and how identities can be easily lost, found, and trampled when the disovery of provenance isn't respected.
The Author shares this revelation, after the reading, with a young woman who teaches the Author the same powerful lesson, in her own way, because she is unsatisfied with the ending he's contrived.
I was enthralled by this story. Not just because of the important lesson of respect, but because it's a story about writing, authors, and the angst all of us endure through the process of creation and the yearning for validation of our work. It felt like an indulgent story told inside the layers of a chocolate mousse cake, drizzled with chocolate sauce. There was so much storytelling swirling around in my imagination, it almost sent me into literary brain freeze.
If you are a writer, especially, I highly recommend this film. The clever way it conveys the story, written from three different perspectives simultaneously, is an amazing bit of luxury.
My only disappointment... alas, this film is not based on a book. It would have been amazing to read all the details the filmmakers left out.
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