The Words - a story of Karma

'The Words' is a romantic drama written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal in their directorial debut. It has an impressive star cast.

The movie begins with author Clayton Hammond (Dennis Quaid) reading excerpts from his latest novel 'The Words'. His book is about a young writer Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper-Hangover/Limitless) who after struggling for five years attains literary success with a book that he has not actually written. His moral turpitude comes back to torment him when he meets the Old Man (Jeremy Irons) who is the real author of his novel. He has to come to terms with the fact that wrong doings come at a cost and he would have to pay a personal price for placing ambition and fame above honesty.

Clayton's multi-layered novel also touches upon the story of a WW II soldier (Ben Barnes) who is in love with a French woman (Nora Arnezeder); they are a young couple living in Paris of the 40's and the death of his child leads to his penning a manuscript which his wife ends up losing; this loss has a huge impact on their lives and leads him to taking decisions he would regret for the rest of his life.

The story line is very forceful and keeps you engrossed till the end. The actors are absolutely brilliant. Ben is very realistic in his character as one who loved and lost. Bradley Cooper is magnificent as a disheartened writer in the throes of desperation and  delivers a subtle performance that show cases his range and Jeremy Irons, the acting icon essays perfectly the role of a broken old man who has lost the zest for life.

Certain scenes are very true to life, the writer's father advising his young son that he would be a man when he begins to recognize his limitations. While it’s good to dream it is equally necessary to gauge our own potential for we often fail to realize that what we aspire to be may be a pipe dream. The movie touches upon the moral dilemmas that we encounter- Bradley's character has to live with the guilt of having claimed someone's work as his own and also the realization that it was never possible for him to be a great writer.

The movie is honest and touching and makes you reflect on life and its uncertainties, on human frailties, mistakes we make and live with, our pains and heartbreaks, which are so much a part and parcel of life. It is important to acknowledge and make peace with our inadequacies, to put the past behind and to move on with life. Hindu philosophy espouses the theory of Karma and the film too dwells on it poignantly.

The movie has a rather enigmatic end, where it is left to the viewer to sift reality from fiction and to interpret whether 'The Words' is an autobiography or simply a work of fiction. The movie makes for a definitive watch for its thought provoking story line which leaves you ruminating for long.