Words and Pictures
Director: Fred Schepisi
Writer: Gerald Di Pego
Cast: Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Bruce Davison, Valerie Tian, Amy Brenneman

Plot:
Jack (Clive Owen) is an English teacher who used to be a good poet, but is now an alcoholic who can’t put words to paper anymore. Dina (Juliette Binoche) is a sought-after painter who suffers from rheumatiod arthritis which makes her inable to paint as she used to. So she starts working as an art teacher at Jack’s school and the two become rivals immediately. As they argue over words vs. pictures, their class takes up the fight as well and channel it into a creative outlet.

Words and Pictures was mostly enjoyable even though it is a film that tries way too hard with pretty much everything.

[SPOILERS]

The words vs. pictures rivalry could have been an interesting subject for this kind of film if it had been applied with any kind of sense. I doubt that there are many people who honestly believe that truth can only be communicated through pictures or only through words. But that is exactly the conflict that the film tries to build, while undermining it at every turn exactly because nobody really believes that. So why stick so hard to that concept?

But that’s not the only thing where the movie refuses to let go of an idea, despite that idea not working. There is also the romantic ending for Dina and Jack that was completely unnecessary. If they had shook hands in the end and left it at that, it would have been a whole lot better. But obviously Jack’s redemption makes a reward in the form of a beautiful woman necessary.

But worst of all is the sexual harassment plot in the middle that is thrown in rather randomly and dealt with extremely weirdly.Sometimes it’s spot-on – when Dina is the woman arguing against the boy on her own, while the men say that he is a nice guy and would never do such a thing, that rang very true. But how the situation escalated was awkward at best. That it happened to the only Asian girl in the entire school didn’t make it less awkward either.

There are some nice things about the film. I really loved Juliette Binoche’s paintings – they were great (her actual art was used for the film). Generally both Binoche and Owen were good. If only the material had done them justice.

Summarizing: It’s watchable but don’t expect too much.