The Words
CBS Films | Release Date: September 7, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
18
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 6, 2012
Amazingly, though, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, cowriters and codirectors of The Words, have the audacity - and the skill sets - to pull this all off. They wrest emotional truth out of hokum. They also wrest intelligent, nuanced performances from their cast. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 6, 2012
The performances, excepting perhaps Olivia Wilde's odd turn, are solid, and the central story never loses our attention, but there's a lingering aftertaste of vague dissatisfaction. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 6, 2012
It's more or less a grown-up picture, and not bad at that, though its muted and patient style has both its merits and its drawbacks. Still, as I say: not bad. Read full review
60
NPRElla TaylorSep 7, 2012
The Words founders on a spurious dichotomy between love and art. Which is a pity, because the movie is smart and persuasive on the casually incremental way in which plagiarism becomes an option for people like Rory - and perhaps for anyone. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 6, 2012
A clever, entertaining yarn that doesn't bear close scrutiny. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghSep 5, 2012
A lush but fumbling literary melodrama outfitted with an attractive, generations-spanning cast and a puzzle box of three competing narratives. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam LitovitzSep 7, 2012
The Words suggests that a story, whether true or not, can help get us through, if we believe it enough. Though this film can't quite pull it off, a good enough thief can get away with it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliSep 6, 2012
In the end - and every story needs one - The Words is a decent, ambitious, unoriginal film about a decent, ambitious, unoriginal writer. Both aim for greatness. Both fall short. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 6, 2012
Ironically, the dialogue in The Words is its chief failing. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisSep 6, 2012
The Words aspires to depths greater than the sex we never see these two have. There's nothing for the eye to do while the ear fills with the banalities of two streams of narration, one by Dennis Quaid, the other by Jeremy Irons, all of it built around a lie. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsSep 6, 2012
The fatal flaw of this screenwriting term paper is that Cooper's character is a boring jerk we're supposed to regard as a nice guy who made an honest mistake. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 5, 2012
Watching the movie, I enjoyed the settings, the periods and the acting. I can't go so far as to say I cared about the story, particularly after it became clear that its structure was too clever by half. Read full review
50
The PlaylistTodd GilchristAug 22, 2012
The Words fails to surpass dramatically the bland lack of specificity in its title while still offering a solid roundup of performances from its talented ensemble cast. Read full review
50
VarietyRob NelsonAug 22, 2012
A literary film that stands to work best for those who don't read, The Words is a slick, superficially clever compendium of stories about authors of uncertain talent and varying success. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensSep 7, 2012
Unfolds like the slow-motion dismantling of the world's most boring matryoshka. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 6, 2012
It's a snooze. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 6, 2012
Though Cooper deserves credit for pushing beyond his comfort zone, he's clearly miscast in a role better suited to a young unknown. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 6, 2012
It's not atrocious, but it borders on it, thanks to Dennis Quaid's annoying narration and his even more irritating portrait of the self-loathing writer whose presence bookends the two main storylines. Read full review
40
TimeMary PolsSep 6, 2012
For a tale of thieving, The Words plods along. Not that a literary heist is as exciting as a bank robbery, but there's a remarkable lack of tension in this story. Read full review
40
Time OutA. A. DowdSep 4, 2012
The connections among the film's various plot strands are painfully obvious; by the time a grizzled Jeremy Irons saunters in, ready to dole out a comeuppance, perceptive viewers will have mentally flipped to the last page. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneAug 22, 2012
The Words is a movie for people who buy their novels at Starbucks, made by people who write their novels at Starbucks. Read full review
38
Washington PostJen ChaneySep 6, 2012
A well-acted but narratively limp indie that's undermined by a failure to connect emotionally with its audience. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyAdam MarkovitzSep 8, 2012
Cooper, who looks appealingly wolfish in his expensively tailored suits, plays the whole thing with a dutiful, earnest expression lacquered on his face, his eyes misting on cue at the exact same moments yours will be rolling into the back of your head. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonSep 9, 2012
Hoariest of all are the exhortations to make distinctions between "fiction" and "life." Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 8, 2012
The movie, written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, is desultory when it's not inept, but the set-up is so good that you can't help sticking it out to the (unforgivable) end. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickSep 7, 2012
The acting, script and direction - not to mention the syrupy score - conspire to make this a perfect storm of a hoot that will find its most appreciative audience among renters who have had a few glasses of wine beforehand. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianShawn LevySep 6, 2012
A nitwit story about a nitwit author who has written a nitwit novel about a nitwit author who has published a nitwit novel which, in fact, he has stolen wholecloth from another writer whose personal behavior, as fictionalized in the novel-within-the-novel-within-the-film, can charitably be described as...nitwit. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 6, 2012
Even the story-within-a-story structure doesn't pay off. This material needed more substance and ideas - and less flash and sumptuous production values. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineNick SchagerSep 5, 2012
The film folds narratives on top of narratives in a vain attempt to mask the fact that there's nothing to read between its graceless lines. Read full review
16
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinSep 5, 2012
The idiotic melodrama The Words is a maddening contradiction: a film about the publishing industry and a great literary fraud that doesn't have a literary bone in its body or a thought in its pretty, empty little head. Read full review
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