Review: Words and Pictures

"A man is worth more than his words, isn't he?" Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) muses to Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche). "And a woman more than her pictures?" Words and Pictures, a gentle and discreet romantic comedy, finds Jack and Dina circling one another as they debate whether words or pictures have the most power.

Jack is the English teacher at an elite New England prep school, a functioning drunk who's already been banned from one restaurant and on the verge of losing his job. "What happened to you?" former lover and boss Elspeth (Amy Brenneman) wonders. "You came here full of literary awards and full of promise."

Dina is the newly appointed arts professor, a celebrated painter felled by rheumatoid arthritis. Aloof and antisocial - "I have no curiosity at all about your private lives," she tells her students by way of introduction - she's intent on debunking Jack's belief that words are truth and power. For her, words are unworthy and misleading. A picture, on the other hand...well, you can fill in the blank.

Words and Pictures works best when it focuses on its two leads, who share a warm and playful chemistry. There's unnecessary froufrou dealing with two of their students - rich boy Swint (Adam DiMarco) who bullies sensitive soul Emily (Valerie Tian) - and not enough focus on Jack's troubled relationship with his son Tony, played by Christian Scheider. Though Scheider has minimal dialogue in his two exchanges with Owen, he fully conveys the hurt and disappointment of dealing with an alcoholic father.

Gerard DiPego's verbose screenplay has its moments, especially in the stronger second half, but has a general CliffsNotes vibe. Director Fred Schepisi has played in this sandbox before (Roxanne, I.Q.) and wisely gets out of his stars' way.

Owen and Binoche are a joy to watch and credit to DiPego's handling of their mating game, particulary Jack's consideration of Dina's condition. There are no silly games here, this is a mature romance with flawed characters dealing with personal and professional troubles. Their banter is fairly witty though it wouldn't hold against the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn or William Powell-Myrna Loy sparklers of yesteryear. Still it is always welcome to see romances featuring adults even if the results (like the Michael Douglas-Diane Keaton And So It Goes) miss more than hit.

Words and Pictures

Directed by: Fred Schepisi

Written by: Gerard DiPego

Starring: Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Bruce Davison, Amy Brenneman, Navid Negahban, Valerie Tian, Adam DiMarco