Parents' Guide to The Words

You have to give props to a movie that dares to be thoughtful and thought-provoking; few aim squarely at these targets, so kudos for trying. But unfortunately THE WORDS falls short of its ambitions. To start, it's much too long at two-plus hours. Its riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery plot has lots of threads to pursue, but it's still bloated (ironically, it should have had fewer words). When audiences have to peel through so many layers, you'd better be sure each one is worth the work -- and in this case, some of them aren't. Rory's story has a good hook, and viewers will likely even be intrigued when the purposefully vague "old man" reveals the movie's twist. But then that's followed by yet another twist, one which we no longer care to puzzle over -- not because it's so daunting, but because we've had enough.

This isn't the actors' fault. (Except for maybe Quaid, who's always likable but is also a little smarmy for his role, which needs more gravitas.) Cooper tries, and it's always great to run across Jeremy Irons. The Words is in some ways reminiscent of The Notebook, but the romance at the heart of this film's sad and troubled past is as stereotypically cinematic as they come. Heart-wrenching? Sure. Unique? No. Transcendent? Definitely not. Also, a movie about a novel that's meant to be an American classic ought to have words that burrow under our skin because they're so memorable. The little we hear barely makes an impression.