“Words and Pictures” is at its heart, a rather predictable rom-com, but made up with intellectual window-dressing that, along with its stars, becomes the main attraction. Clive Owen plays Jack Marcus, a former literary star and current English teacher whose job is in jeopardy due to his drinking and general decline. He is passionate about language and wants to pass that on to his students, but is disappointed by the school, the students, and most of all himself. Juliette Binoche enters the scene as the school’s new art teacher, Dina Delsanto. Also a former star in her world of painting, Dina has moved to Maine to be closer to her sister, who is helping her cope with a case of rheumatoid arthritis that threatens what’s most important to her, her ability to paint.
Jack is, for all his faults, a popular teacher, among the kids if not the faculty, who tries to inspire his students to worship the English language and its possibilities. Thus he is intrigued and galvanized when he hears that Dina is telling students that words can lie and pictures are a more honest record of truth and beauty. Jack challenges Dina to a competition, a battle royale at the end of the term between words and pictures where the students can judge the merits of their respective media.
For a while, it seems like the film might actually explore these ideas in a satisfying way, but sadly, it only uses them as tools to initiate the romantic conflict. There are some fun quotes from authors and some interesting paintings that Binoche apparently painted herself, but apart from that the ideas are never developed beyond a high school level.
Jack takes a personal interest in Dina, which he expresses in a similar method as his high school students, by teasing her and trying to draw her into the playful conflict. Both are struggling on their own with their respective demons and each sees the other as a way out of loneliness. But while Jack is charming enough to get into Dina’s good graces and eventually her bed, he’s also enough of a drunk to wreck it later. Jack resolves to quit drinking for good, but Dina has no interest in listening. His only chance is to entice her back into the words versus pictures debate, which the students are surprisingly engaged in.
“Words and Pictures” is far from perfect and peddles in far too many clichés, but it’s also something we don’t see enough of at the movies. It’s a middle-aged romance, between two people who know failure and regret, where love doesn’t conquer all, but it helps us cope with disease and our limitations. The film’s biggest strength is its stars, who elevate the material and deliver the lines with an intelligent passion. For all its flaws, there are worse ways to spend a night at the movies than listening to Owen and Binoche spar and quote Shakespeare.
