A writer at the peak of his success must decide what choices to make when the original writer of “his” novel shows up.
I do remember seeing the trailers for this one before its release but not getting round to actually seeing it. I was therefore very happy to stumble across it on Netflix. With a very strong leading cast and an interesting plot, it was always going to have something about it. The film is rather complex and has three different stories going on at the same time and wrapped into one. We have two different story tellers who focus very much on Rory’s life and how he must make decisions.
Dennis Quaid as another author who is telling the story of Rory and how he must accept what he has done in stealing another mans work as his own. Towards the end I felt like it was a twist and this story was based on Clay’s own life? I don’t know if that is true or if it is something for the audience to decide on. Thoughts if you have seen the film?
Clay is asked a lot of questions by a much younger woman Daniella who manages to get backstage after one of his talks and comes across as very stalker-ish knowing pretty much everything about him. Quoting things from interviews. It is unclear at times to what Daniella exactly wants from Clay.
Jeremy Irons is the old man and the scenes he shares with Bradley Cooper really are just brilliant. He has the hurt and the pain from his past and tells the story with Ben Barnes taking on the task of bringing that part of the story to life. Everything around how he wrote the story, and how the words began to flow after his daughter died at a very young age and he ended up estranged from his wife. Just showing that for a writer to create something of great worth they must suffer? I guess that is something all of the writers have in common in this film.
I really did find myself enjoying this one and it’s a shame it didn’t get a little bit more praise or talked about more with its original cinema release. Especially with the hype surrounding Bradley Cooper in recent times!
