Forget art and literature. Words and Pictures’ Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche deliver chemistry lesson
WORDS and Pictures: Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche’s sparring and swinging at each other as they shimmy closer to an inevitable clinch is a delight to watch.
Leigh Paatsch
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WORDS and Pictures is a movie of two contests, both of which end in semi-satisfactory draws.
First of all, in the hallowed halls of a privileged prep school, much hot air is blown at determining which learning discipline carries the most lasting value.
As the title broadly suggests, the debate at hand pits great literature against fine art.
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The team of “Words” is captained by English teacher Jack Marcus, a self-loathing grump who loves the booze almost as much as his books.
As for “Pictures”, the spearhead is comely art teacher Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche), a talented painter whose gift is under threat from an ever-advancing bout of rheumatoid arthritis.
It is hardly a pressing issue around which to frame a movie, and Words and Pictures never really talks the talk convincingly enough to have you siding with either argument for very long.
The other contest in play here is one of formula versus chemistry. For Words and Pictures is also a rom-com, and a fairly creaky old one at that.
The opposites-attract business exchanged by Jack and Dina is so efficiently scheduled throughout the script, you could almost imagine these moments were timetabled by software.
The only saving grace is also a sizeable one: as a screen couple, the effortless manner in which Owen and Binoche spar and swing at each other while shimmying closer to an inevitable clinch is a delight to witness.
Words and Pictures
Director: Fred Schepisi (The Eye Of the Storm)
Starring: Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Bruce Davison, Amy Brenneman
Verdict: Two and a half stars. Little fire, but a lot of spark
Originally published as Forget art and literature. Words and Pictures’ Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche deliver chemistry lesson
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