Movies use the form of storytelling to narrate the plot of a novel. The name of the novel is the title of the movie - "The Words". The film begins with Clayton reading the novel, and continues.
The novel "The Words" contains two stories. One is from Tears of the Window, and the other is about Rory.
Regarding the latter story, the arrangement in the film constitutes a climax at the end of the film. The appearance of female admirers is a key in the movie, and its task is to solve the mystery in the movie. It's only at the end of the movie that the answer becomes clear - Clayton, who reads his own work, is the Rory of the novel.
The story within the story - such a complex structure, highlights an important theme of the film: how should literature and art be reconciled with life?
Both men in the movie missed the most beautiful time of their lives because they didn't deal with it. The story of "Tears in the Window" is similar to Hemingway's life in Paris. Young people who seek the light of literature and art value literature and art more than love. This made his life a mess after the manuscript of "Tears in the Window" was lost.
The old man, when he said something about "choice", the young Rory didn't understand the full meaning of that phrase. Because he has not yet faced the situation of his deceived wife leaving, at the end of the movie, when he hugs his wife and says "I'm sorry", we see his wife's indifferent and disappointed eyes. When Rory (ie, Clayton, who wrote The Words) wrote the story of the year and was confronted by a wonderful and clever admirer, he began to understand what the old gardener said, right?
The difference between Rory and Clayton is that the old gardener broke his wife's heart because he took literature and art too seriously. The phrase "you're not the only one who has a daughter" makes his wife's situation worse. He lost the desire to write a single word because he could no longer face his heart. When his novel was republished under someone else's name, his inner pain revived. He did not suffer from being used to other people's names in his novels, but reminded him of past sad stories. He told Rory the story behind Window Tears.
At this time, Rory began to pay the price for the initial vanity. He confessed to his wife that she left him; he confessed to his agent, only to be scolded. And learned that the book he wrote himself had never been printed more than the "Tears of the Window" he stole. Disturbed by his conscience, he went to the gardener, but the gardener refused his request. In this way, the gardener expressed his remorse for his mistakes. And Rory succumbed, succumbed to the financial gain and fame he had brought from publishing Tears of the Window.
In the end, he wrote the book "The Words", which can be regarded as a reminiscence of the original misappropriation of that book. He wanted to cover up the shame of the past, but he inevitably let him leak it out through his pen.
The two men who were involved in "Tears of the Window" used their half-life life to interpret the question of how to choose. This film inspires us to ask: which is more important than art and life?
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