For this month’s streaming article, I’ve decided to feature one movie, Words and Pictures starring Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Keegan Connor Tracy, and Bruce Davison.
It’s an odd choice in terms of the critical reception of the film. The plot was bashed by critics who found the performances of Owen and Binoche to be impeccable.
In the context of storytelling, it fits perfectly with our theme.
Owen plays Jack Marcus an author and poet teaching advanced writing at Croyden, an elite prep school in Maine.
Jack connects with his students and brings out their best, while the best of him is slowly slipping away. He is divorced and has a tenuous relationship with his adult son made worse by Jack’s bouts of drinking and irresponsibility. He hasn’t published anything in recent years and is falling behind in grading his students’ assignments. With his yearly review coming up, Jack learns the board of directors want to cut his literary magazine for budgetary reasons and his job is in danger.
Binoche plays Dina Delsanto a successful Italian painter who is highly respected in the New York art community. Dina hasn’t been able to produce a painting in several years because of rheumatoid arthritis. When she begins experiencing crippling bouts with her disease where she is unable to dress or bathe herself without assistance, she moves to Maine to be closer to her sister and mother. Dina accepts a position at Croyden teaching advanced art studies. She and Jack have many of the same students.
When Dina expresses her belief in the cliché, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” she and Jack clash. There is .instant chemistry between Jack and Dina though they begin their acquaintance as adversaries. Both are disillusioned with life. She’s fighting a physical battle with a disease that prevents her from painting while his battle with writer’s block is mental. His struggles with alcohol are both physical and mental.
Jack challenges Dina to a battle of words versus pictures to be settled by a competition of their students illustrating the power of words and the power of art. The story takes an interesting turn when a student posts an anonymous inappropriate drawing of a female student on social media. Jack learns the power of a picture when he sees how humiliated the female student is and Dina learns the power of the other students’ words as they react to the drawing.
During the competition, Dina and her students present great works of art while Jack and his students present some of the most beautiful and moving passages from great works of literature and poetry.
Watch this film for the outstanding performances of Owen and Binoche and for the beautiful art and literature. Forgive the plot for its weaknesses because the storytelling is done by these incredible actors.
Words and Pictures is available on YouTube for free, on Amazon Prime Video with your subscription, and for $3.99 on Apple Tv, Google Movies & TV, or Vudo.
Movie Image :
By IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380331/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42638973