When I first heard about this movie it immediately got my attention. Words and Pictures - the story of my life! Writing has taken a front row seat but painting is a close second (having been in the lead for many years.) And with Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche as the main characters, well, it sounded like a winner to me. And yes, I loved it (Jim did, too.)

 Jack Marcus (Clive) and Dina Delsanto (Juliette) are both teachers at a preppy high school. Jack wrote a novel, six years ago, and now seems more interested in fulfilling his destiny as an alcoholic than as a writer, despite his brilliant mind. He even shamelessly steals his son's poem and claims it as his own to save his job. Juliette, a well-known artist, is battling RA (rheumatoid arthritis). Their mutual attraction, fed by multi-syllabic bantering, leads them to bed and by the time morning dawns, it's over. It finally takes Jack's drunken clumsiness when he falls into a still wet painting, a breakthrough work for Dina, to the realization that he has a problem and needs help.

The central theme is to prove, via a challenge, which is more important - words or pictures. Referring back to cave drawings as a way of communicating...led to words when not enough could be expressed through paintings. Jack eloquently concludes that both are needed, both are equally important, just different ways of saying something. I couldn't agree more!