The Words (2012)

There is a famous story that this movie reenacts--almost everything that Hemingway wrote in the years leading up to 1922 was lost by his first wife Hadley on a train.  That is what happens here, but there is another layer to the story--one which I am not sure adds much to the overall plot, but it does get you thinking within a different framework.  I am just not sure that it is enough of an addition to justify its inclusion.

There are stories within stories here.  Jeremy Irons play 'the old man'--the guy who wrote the book that is left in a briefcase on a Paris train.  He has lost his wife and daughter, and he pours out his story in a feverish two weeks of writing that produces a manuscript.  He then tracks down his wife, gives her the story, and she decides to return to him after she reads it.

So, a long time later there is a good writer, Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) who borrows a lot of money from his father and does nothing but write--he produces a good book, but since he is a complete unknown, no one take a chance with him.  He goes to work in a publishing house, he still writes at night and on weekends, but he is moving on.  Until his wife buys him a briefcase in a Paris antique store, and he finds the old man's manuscript.  And he is blown away.

He can't stop thinking about how powerful the story is--he dreams about it, he obsesses about it during the day, and he finally types it up, word for word.  Then his wife finds it.  She thinks it is amazing--and she thinks it is his.  She insists he publish it.  To his credit, Rory is a very reluctant participant.  That guilt that the story is not his keeps him humble and likable, even after fame becomes routine.  And then it happens. The man who's story it really is tracks him down and confronts him with the truth.

The story within the story is written by Clayton Hammond (Dennis Quaid)--who is telling ROry's real story in a reading that is almost like a soliloquy.  I am not sure this adds much, but it does force you to think about the price Rory paid when he took someone's work, knowing he would never publish anything that good again.  It makes you think about that path.