Although the movie has been panned by critics, I liked “The Words” with Dennis Quaid and Jeremy Irons. The story has would-be writer Bradley Cooper finding a manuscript that has been stashed for years on a dusty shelf in a Paris antique shop. The words are better than any he has ever written, so he retypes them and submits the manuscript as his own. His brazen theft doesn’t seem to bother him until he is confronted by the real author, now an old man (Jeremy Irons).
The story within a story ends with a cautionary line from yet another author (Quaid). Quaid’s character notes that fiction and real life are so close that you may imagine that fiction has become reality. When I’m reading historical fiction, it is easy to believe the author had been under the bed to actually hear the conversation between characters.
This screenplay is not based on a book – but – once upon a time William Kotzwinkle wrote
a funny satirical fable about a big black bear who finds a manuscript under a tree in the Maine woods, dons a suit and a tie, and heads off to the big city to seek his fame and fortune. Could The Bear Went Over the Mountain have been the inadvertent inspiration for the movie? Seems everyone wants to be a writer…
The No Charge Book Bunch 
This is the only movie I want to see at the theater right now. The story is bookish and Bradley Cooper is easy to watch 🙂
Yep, not much out there.
Jeremy Irons and Bradley Cooper?! I haven’t seen this previewed, but those two names alone would make me pay attention.
Dennis Quaid caught my eye, but he only had a cameo role; the other two carried the story – and it was about my favorite topics – reading and writing.