The movie follows young writer Rory Jansen who finally achieves long sought after literary success after publishing the next great American novel. But it's not his work, and he soon discovers the steep price he must pay for the stealing.
The premise is ambitious -- if not a little hokey -- but the meager themes of ephemeral authorship and constructed realities aren't exactly revelatory.
"The Words" is an elegant piece of entertainment, replete with an understated but sweeping score, unexpected period piece vignettes, and melodramatic but universal themes.
The story-within-a-story-within-a-story is so slight and inconsequential, like the tiniest of a set of Russian nesting dolls, that we may be forgiven for letting our minds wander toward bedtime and tomorrow's errands.
A movie about a bad author who steals the book of a good author, and I'm pretty certain that The Words, if pressed, wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
