The Words Reviews

The Words is horrible, a smug, self-satisfied piece of over-plotted nonsense that is horribly written and decently acted. Stay far, far away.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/10

A dreadful and terribly-paced drama that leads nowhere and is ultimately as empty as words can get.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/5

"The Words" tries to meticulously paint a picture with a broad brush, thus smearing the details and creating a different piece than perhaps intended.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

Dennis Quaid reading from a book his character purportedly authored redefines "suspension of disbelief".

Full Review | Original Score: C-

The premise is ambitious -- if not a little hokey -- but the meager themes of ephemeral authorship and constructed realities aren't exactly revelatory.

Full Review

This film's layered storytelling lacks the fluidity, grace, or good humour, to pull off its conceit.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Described as both a romantic drama and a thriller, the film doesn't quite live up to the billing -- despite a premise rife with promise and a star-studded cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.7/10

By the time a grizzled Jeremy Irons saunters in, ready to dole out a comeuppance, perceptive viewers will have mentally flipped to the last page.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Sometimes you're flabbergasted when very good actors are in very bad films. But no-one sets out to make a bad movie. They just turn out that way. But, seriously, there's no way that the script of The Words could have appeared good to anyone, could it?

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

Literary soapie The Words is mutton dressed as bespectacled lamb.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

I like the idea but The Words is a little too preachy, too melodramatic for my liking.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

While the idea of staging a story within a story within a story might sound like an intriguing narrative device, co-writers/directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal confuse complexity for cleverness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Like Rory's purloined novel, The Words is nothing but a big cheat.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

It's Cooper who's the biggest casualty, forced to deaden his surefire spark to accommodate his dud of a character.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

A pleasant but overly complex variation on an idea Woody Allen toyed-with in his stumbling "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," this notion of counterfeit literary fame...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Melodrama built on a shallow, contrived literary device.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A dreadful misfire, particularly for Cooper, who is otherwise pursuing an interesting career trajectory away from The Hangover series.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

In a relevant study of plagiarism, influences and lifetime experiences, The Words chiefly reminds us that the past is indelible.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

I enjoyed the settings, the periods and the acting. I can't go so far as to say I cared about the story, particularly after it became clear that its structure was too clever by half.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

For the most part, it's an adequate romantic drama orbiting an intriguing moral dilemma, but the decision to use a three-layered approach to tell the story makes little sense from a dramatic or narrative perspective.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4