The Words

"At some point, you have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close, but they never actually touch." -Clay Hammond as portrayed by Dennis Quaid

This 2012 film reveals the truth behind what it takes to become a great writer. It is a story within a story. Middle aged author, Clay Hammond, writes of aspiring young writer, Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), who finds an old manuscript inside a leather portfolio his wife, Dora (Zoe Saldana), buys him on their honeymoon in Paris. Jansen falls in love with the story and finds himself within its pages, needs to feel the words for himself, so he copies the manuscript, word for word, on his computer. 

Dora finds the story, reads it and when she greets him with tearful praises for the greatness of the work, Rory decides to claim it as his own. He takes it to the publishing company where he works, as Dora had encouraged, and he becomes an overnight success.

An old man (Jeremy Irons) confronts Jansen in the park one afternoon. He reveals the truth about the story behind the story he had lost in Paris, along with his wife and child, years before. Jansen is distraught and offers the man royalties, to out himself as a liar, but the man bids him not be such a fool. He asks for nothing except the opportunity to share his story with Rory, whose world is irrevocably shaken by the reality of hearing the old man's words in the flesh. 

Hammond is performing a reading of his novel of two novelists and their eerily parallel lives. A Colombia University graduate student named Daniella (Olivia Wilde), woos him into revealing what happens to the Jansens at the end of the novel. Rory buries the manuscript with the old man. The two carry on with their lives. Rory continues to write, to the best of his ability. 

Daniella calls bullshit on his ending and effectively, on Hammond's own admonition that one must choose between life and fiction. She asks him to choose and they share a passionate kiss.

This moving film is not only a cautionary tale about the consequences of plagiarism but a powerful representation of the emotional and psychological influence mere words, the art of stringing them together to create a story, and the impact of sharing said stories, has on our lives as readers and writers alike.