The Thief of Words

For a long time, young author Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) has suffered from tremendous writer's block, and his dream of a career as a writer is receding further and further into the distance. But then one day he finds an unpublished manuscript that captivates him after just a few words. Without quite knowing why, Rory passes the work off as his creation. Suddenly he's hailed as a new star of the literary scene, and it's not just the critics who fall at his feet. But then one day an old man (Jeremy Irons) shows up claiming to be the actual author of the mesmerizing words Rory is taking credit for. To prove his claim, the man tells the young author about his years spent as a young man in Paris and the price he paid for the book. But do Rory and the old man really exist, or are they a pure invention of writer Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid), who has a debunking conversation with attractive student Daniella (Olivia Wilde) about the true background of his book about the thief of words.

It almost borders on ironic that parts of The Thief of Words bear a striking resemblance to Martin Suter's Lila Lila, even though directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal claim to know neither the book nor its film adaptation and even wrote their story before Suter's novel was published. Whether they found a manuscript by Suter in an old bag, or whether the parallels are just a coincidence after all, remains to be seen. The fact is that the two filmmakers not only tell their story in a much more serious way than Suter did, but they also added two more layers of plot that makes the whole thing look in a completely different light in the end.

The individual elements of the convoluted stories are quite successful. The actors all deliver very good performances, with Jeremy Irons as the mysterious old man and Nora Arnezeder as the great lost love from his youth in Paris making particularly lasting impressions. Visually, the film also has a particularly engaging atmosphere, with the scenes set in Paris (and shot in Quebec, Canada) standing out here as well. Taken on their own, all three storylines work very well, too. The only problem is that there just isn't enough time to flesh out all the stories and their characters well. For example, the character of Rory's wife Dora (Zoe Saldana) remains very pale and the not uninteresting story about Clay and the curious student Daniella (Olivia Wilde) remains too superficial, especially in the crucial moments.

Although the linking of the three stories is cleverly solved in itself and in a way also has a lasting effect, the resolution seems a bit indecisive. Somehow the story that carries the whole thing runs in a void and leaves the viewer a little perplexed. True, a film doesn't have to regurgitate everything to its audience and present obvious solutions on a silver platter. But if a certain amount of tension is built up throughout the film, then it should be adequately resolved. And that's exactly what Klugman and Sternthal just don't manage to do with the way they end the Clay/Daniella story arc.

However, the story about Rory and the stolen novel and the old man's narration are strong enough to carry The Thief of Words through its weaker moments. It's an engaging drama full of romance, heart, and sadness, with tense moments, moments of poetry, and understated humor. And that's enough to give this film a more than deserved "worth seeing" rating, despite its obvious flaws!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp