Words and Pictures

This film tells the story of an alcoholic English teacher in a high school, who stirs up rivalry with a new arts teacher to inspire him and drag him out of a his life's mess.

The war between words and pictures is very interesting to watch, as it's intellectual and unlike the usual bickering rivalry. The additional fun comes from the students who are caught in the middle, and the by product is that the students are inspired to work harder as well. It's such a sweet romantic comedy with many positive messages. And life doesn't end for those who has long term illness! It gives hope to common people, and I like that message a lot.

So great to have a movie adults can enjoy amidst a summer of cartoon plots & characters; a movie you can actually take your family to without being bombarded by violence, sex and f-bombs. I loved it. Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche as artists each struggling with demons that have crippled (in Binoche's case, literally) their creative abilities, deliver wonderful performances, as does the entire cast. The well-paced script rolls along at just the right pace, while giving us moments of pause to feel each character's pain and root for their ultimate triumph.

You'd have to be pretty cynical to not like this movie. Could one pick it apart? As with any film, the answer is "sure." But why? Just go. Buy your popcorn and enjoy a really good-hearted film. The audience I saw it with (almost all over 40) was cheering at the end.

I almost opted out of seeing Words and Pictures but I'm very happy that I saw it. The movie is about a high school English teacher who was once an acclaimed publisher but lost his creativity because he thinks it's not appreciated by his students and drowns his sorrows in alcohol. He is played by Clive Owen who performed brilliantly. He intersects with a new world renowned Art teacher played by Juliette Binoche who is struggling to maintain her ability to create due to a debilitating medical condition which physically prevented her from painting with fine strokes. Juliette Binoche transforms amazingly and performs well. I didn't even recognize her as the actress that played Vianne in Chocolat which I loved her in and Hana the nurse in The English Patient. In their dual over their passions of words and pictures, they end up challenging each other and their students and movie goers alike to appreciate and desire to create beauty using words and art. After watching Belle and a slew of other movies set around Victorian Era England, I noted that our conversational language has become so simple when there are so many beautiful words available to us. This movie echoes that sentiment. I expected Words and Pictures to be an overly artsy romantic love story but it was balanced. There are two things I didn't like about this movie. The first is that we aren't given the back story of the main characters. The characters even acknowledge they don't know a lot about each other but they are satisfied with it and I guess movie goers were supposed to be OK with it as well. The second is that besides reciting other people's words, Clive Owen's character doesn't say much of his own words that conveys his whole premise about words. I kept waiting for this great prose from him, but never got it. Overall the movie is entertaining and inspiring and I recommend you go see it.

This is an honest movie that could be classified as a romantic comedy, but offers something more cerebral than that.

Through its main protagonist, the witty but self-destructive Jack (who plays tennis in his lounge room when drunk) we see a glimpse of the kind of inspirational teacher from Dead Poets Society recast in the information age where students can answer any question by referring to their electronic devices, while never understanding the worth of the question in the first place.

Don't let the love story fool you into thinking this is a chick flick. It's about appreciating the creation and expression of new ideas, neatly summed-up in the title: Words & Pictures.

This movie pleasantly surprised me with its clever dialogue and wordplay, despite the boy-meets-girl, etc storyline. Well worth a look.

At a posh New England secondary school, with an ocean setting, English teacher Jack (Clive Owen) is in the midst of a middle age crisis. Only, he doesn't know it. Not yet. Others have observed that he drinks too much and is often a few minutes late to class, with poor lesson planning. To his credit, Jack is extremely dedicated and bright, making the most of his classes and connecting well with students. But, he is headed for trouble. That is, until a new art teacher, Dina (Juliette Binoche) arrives at the academy, cane in hand, for she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. Needless to say, Jack rubs her the wrong way almost instantly, although it is quite clear that Dina can give tit for tat. After a discussion in her art honors class, students tell Jack that Dina thinks words are far less important and meaningful than pictures. Ho ho, Jack pounces on this pronto. Now, he tells his pupils, this is war and lays out a strong defense of the power of words by reading many meaningful passages of literature. An ultimate challenge of the two dueling forms of communication may lie ahead. In the meantime, Jack is told he is going to be "reviewed" by the board of directors and may be let go. He also is having difficulties with his college age son. Happily, Dina may be showing some romantic interest in Jack. What lies ahead in the battle of words and pictures? This wonderful and poignant movie is most welcome in this age of flicks aimed at young adult males. It offers a romance between middle aged characters and has an alluring, finely written script. Owen and Binoche are pitch perfect in their roles while the supporting cast of Bruce Davison, Amy Brenneman, and well-selected teenage actors are charming, too. The coastal setting is absolutely lovely while costumes, photography, and a worthy direction by Fred Schepisi bring terrific results. Please go support this movie, true-blue film fans. Unless you do, Hollywood won't offer this kind of movie very often.