Words and Pictures

There's great magic in Words and Pictures. And that magic comes from the sheer joy of watching a real human story so eloquently played out before our eyes. In a time when we are bombarded by CGI laden, tent pole films crafted by marketing firms rather than great storytellers, it is refreshing to find a summer film that focuses on character and the human condition. I loved this film and the emotional journey it takes us on. Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche are both at the top of their game in this film, giving us layered performances that are humorous, touching and yes… I'll use the word again… human. The greatest strength of this film is it's screenplay with it's honest look at relationships. The relationship between words and pictures becomes the vehicle by which we dive into all the emotional relationships. These are flawed and delicate characters making their way through the minefield of life. Fathers and sons, lovers, coworkers, mentors and mentees. All of the relationships play out so beautifully and honestly on screen. From our wonderful leads to even the smallest of supporting characters, not an emotive moment is wasted. Thank God there are films where great writing is still revered and producers, directors and actors who take a chance with those words and bring them to the screen in glorious moving pictures. Don't miss this one!

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.

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.

I saw it for Juliette Binoche. And, indeed, she remains, scene by scene, the good motif for see ( and love ) this film.

I saw it as teacher, recognizing situations, gestures, mistakes.

I hated the too pink end and I perceived the romance between Dina and Jack as too, too forced, to the border of fake.

I loved, very much, the paintings of Juliette Binoche. And the young actors, giving fair portraits of students.

I saw the duel between words and pictures as decent crafted but not real convincing more than as a didactic method for seduce students and create some romance.

In short, a beautiful film in its essence.

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.