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                   Plagiarism Has Consequences in 'The Words'

   by Alan Silverman

   In [1]The Words, an author steals another writer's work and then must
   face the consequences and his conscience in a new romantic drama
   starring Bradley Cooper.
   "Do you think you can just steal another man's life and expect there be
   no price to pay?"

   IFRAME: [2]http://www.youtube.com/embed/bhh7yYWUccI

   The film tells the stories of three men whose connection is on the
   pages of a novel. Rory is the would-be author played by Bradley Cooper.
   Cooper explains that the crisis of conscience begins with a fateful
   choice when Rory discovers a brilliant, unsigned manuscript.
   ''"It is not like he set out to plagiarize at all. The only reason he
   downloads that onto his computer is because, as written [in the
   script], he wanted to feel what the words would be like washing over
   his fingers," Cooper explains. "It's not until his wife looks at him
   for the first time in the way that he wants her to look at him that he
   is seduced by that and is not man enough to say 'that is not me.'"
   To Rory's shock, the actual author turns up after the book is
   published, and the old man forces the young writer to confront his
   choice.
    "I do have a story, a very good story. I know you get this line all
   the time, but I think you will like the story. It is about a man who
   wrote a book and then lost it ...and the kid who found it."
   ''Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons plays the old man whose stolen manuscript
   was based on his experiences in Paris after WW II. British actor Ben
   Barnes plays the young man in the novel.
   "I think regret is one of the saddest emotions it is possible to feel:
   the kind of pathos of the moment when he realizes what his life could
   have been," explains Barnes, "and he realizes, wholeheartedly, that the
   decisions that he's made with his life were the wrong ones. I can't
   imagine anything sadder than that."
   "You have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close,
   but they never actually touch."
   Completing this triangle, Dennis Quaid plays Clay, yet another author
   who has written his own book about the stolen story.
   "Being an actor, I was really attracted to the story of an artist who
   feels like a fraud. I think all of us feel like we're frauds
   sometimes," Quaid says.
   The Words is co-directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal from a
   script they wrote under the guidance of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
   The film features Zoe Saldana, French actress Nora Arnezeder and
   Irish-American Olivia Wilde as the loves and muses in the various
   characters' lives.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/author-faces-consequences-of-plagiari
   sm-in-the-words/1505048.html

References

   1. http://www.thewordsmovie.com/
   2. http://www.youtube.com/embed/bhh7yYWUccI
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/author-faces-consequences-of-plagiarism-in-the-words/1505048.html