Words and Pictures

Juliette Binoche is charming as the handicapped art teacher who handles a huge paint brush suspended from the ceiling with aplomb (the credits state that she is the actual artist). Clive Owen plays the alcoholic writer with conviction. The word games are entertaining. And the romance is convincing, even though the competition among the students isn't always (most of them are in both classes).

The critics got it right. This movie is a clunker. Juliette Binoche gives a good performance, as always, but that is the only good thing I can say about it. The plot line about an English teachers personal war with an art teacher about whether literature or painting is the superior medium is dumb. Furthermore, haven't we seen movies about a self-absorbed alcoholic writer before? Give this movie a miss. It is boring and demands great perseverance to see it through to the end.

If you set a film at a prep school and picture basically obedient, ideally brought up students, this is about as good as you can manage to get. The debate, although kind of fudged at the end, was reasonably good (given the setting and all those unrealistically nice young people), but the main symbolic characters, other than the one played by Juliette Binoche, were pretty cliché. I admire Clive Owen for trying, but his drinking was not really convincing and frankly as a former English major, I found him a bit insulting and over the top. Not all – or most of – literature is edifying. Much of it is very dark actually. Binoche had the far easier character – she was made cold by real physical suffering – something no one made much of – no one asked why this great painter was stricken (told you there were very few dark thoughts in here), but Binoche was convincing in her depiction of the pain and frustration of her disease and also quite good at being curt and insulting, but after all, she is French. It is to Schepsi’s discredit that he chose this setting for his debate, but to his credit that the film worked at all and nobody threw any shoes at the screen. I guess we felt sorry for the actors who did a great job considering what they had to work with.

Love Clive Owen. Love Juliette Binoche. Would love to see them in a film worthy of their talents. Each makes a valiant effort to enliven the "words vs. picture" premise, though the basic plot is so minuscule it could be covered in a sitcom. For me a big problem is that their two characters are not evenly matched, talentwise. Binoche is presented as a brilliant artist (and she actually did the art in the movie!) while Owen's character mostly quotes others. And as a boozing, tormented writer, his life itself is a literary cliche.

this movie ****. '****' from the latin as in don't warch it. Jeez it had 'Captain my captain in it' dont use that as a quote not in this **** plods along like the instutution it takes place in (school) where the inmates (viewers) are warching the clock tick down until quitting time. numerous cringeworthy momnets of dialogue, script,acting. with quite possibly some of the lamest philosophical musings on words and art ever comited to film, and some of the masquearading as intellectual is embarrasingly pedestrian.