37
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60Arizona RepublicArizona RepublicA lush but fumbling literary melodrama outfitted with an attractive, generations-spanning cast and a puzzle box of three competing narratives.
- 50The PlaylistTodd GilchristThe PlaylistTodd GilchristThe 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.
- 50VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonA 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.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertWatching 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.
- 50St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsSt. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsThe 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.
- 40Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneBoxoffice MagazineRay GreeneThe Words is a movie for people who buy their novels at Starbucks, made by people who write their novels at Starbucks.
- 40Time OutTime OutThe 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.
- 25Slant MagazineNick SchagerSlant MagazineNick SchagerThe 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.
- 25Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMiami HeraldRene RodriguezEven the story-within-a-story structure doesn't pay off. This material needed more substance and ideas - and less flash and sumptuous production values.
- 16The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe 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.