WORDS AND PICTURES – The Review

Those warm wafting breezes tell us that Summer is finally here. What better time to go…back to school? Well, at least via the local cinema. Director Fred Schepisi’s (ROXANNE) new film takes us back to the halls of academia, not for a heavy drama like DEAD POETS SOCIETY or a raucous comedy like SCHOOL OF ROCK. Nope it’s a romantic comedy/drama. Familiar territory, you say? This one doesn’t concern the campus jock falling for the shy bookworm after her big make-over. Nor is it about two social outcasts bucking the status quo. Nope this is a faculty romance, love between the teachers. It isn’t smooth sailing, of course. The guy teaches English while the gal is the new art instructor, so of course they clash over an age-old argument. Which has the greater importance or impact. It’s the battle between WORDS AND PICTURES.

Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) is the sour, scraggily English teacher at an upscale East coast prep school. The shots of Vodka he surreptitiously empties into his water jug barely get him through the day. But his life is about to get shaken and stirred. On the professional front, the school’s principal and administrator believe that he needs to, as Jack says, “publish or perish”. It’s been years since any of his work has seen print, which will go against him in the faculty reviews. And said faculty is expanding with the addition of several instructors from a shuttered school. One of them is the new art teacher, celebrated painter Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche). She too has been having trouble making new works, but not because of a creative block. Arthritis has tightened its grip on her brush hand and frustrated her talents. She’s built a bitter, protective shell around herself, one that Jack’s determined to shatter. But when a group of some of the school’s elite students question the importance of written works or art works they put the two teachers at professional odds which may derail their blossoming new romance.

The role of the intellectual Marcus is a bit of a departure for Owen, usually the dark, smoldering man of action (he was nearly 007, after all). We get a sense of his focused intelligence coupled with a scruffy, rascally charm (he attracts his females students, but a great many of the guys are pulled in by his charisma). We’re given early hints at his darker side (spiking his water bottle) which lead into his frustrations at losing his literary skills. Owen brings this flawed man (and fairly functioning alcoholic) to vivid life. Binoche’s role as the striken artist isn’t allowed the showy flourishes of his character. There are several sequences of Dina pushing valiantly against her body that’s now unable to follow her creative impulses. Thankfully her brain helps take up the quest as she creates several “Rube Goldberg-like” mechanisms to help her  assault the blank canvases. Her teaching style is not as obviously compelling as Jack’s theatricality. She wants her pupils to let their art burst forward from their emotions. Mostly Dina is guarded , putting up a wall to deflect the witty, flirtatious attacks from Jack. Unfortunately this regulates her into the standard “rom-com” prize to be won by the hero. Binoche deserves better. Bruce Davidson shines as a long-time faculty member sympathetic to both Jack and Dina, attempting to keep the peace. Amy Brenneman is saddled with a thankless role as the surly administrator after Jack to create new works (and because of the actor’s brooding good looks, of course the character’s had a brief fling years ago with Jack). And the group of students Jack and Dina share are played by several new screen faces who bring a lot of energy to the classroom and school yard scenes.

Director Schepsi tries to give us a serious film about big ideas while including many romantic tropes that often clash and never quite gel before the final fade-out clinch. It’s the familiar guy meets gal tango, two steps forward, one back, split apart, get together, and repeat. We’re to be amused that Jack’s a rebel by his secret tippling and we hear of past incidents (banishment from the local fine eatery), but the problem’s never forcefully driven home until the big confrontation with Jack’s estranged son, and an accident in Dina’s studio. A scene of Jack drunkenly vandalizing his home while he blasts rock tunes seems awkward, and would be clumsy for an actor half Owen’s age. Like many TV shows and movies, the whole school seems to just revolve around 6 or 7 students (like Archie Andrews and his comic book pals and gals), who are just there to help the principal leads clash. But the film’s main downfall may be its simplified view of art. Jack’s simple 7 line poem moves and astounds all who read. Dina’s abstract color swatches mesmerize all who view its majesty (really, no one remarks about how their five year-old could do something just as good?). The film makers just present the works as great by showing us everyone saying that they’re great. Just another misstep in a clunky, predictable screenplay. Binoche and Owen are compelling screen presences, who despite the contrivances, have a wonderful chemistry. Hopefully their next pairing will be more worthy of their considerable talents.

2.5 Out of 5

WORDS AND PICTURES opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre and Plaza Frontenac Cinemas