The tortured artist, plying his craft, is a cliché in our culture. In reality, artists struggle with their work no less than athletes struggle with their game, or businessmen struggle with the bottom line, or parents struggle with raising kids. Yet somehow, the creation of art is viewed as a uniquely mystical process, unfathomable to outsiders, and sometimes even to other artists. The Words plays heavily into this notion, and might have risen above the cliché thanks to some great performances, but ironically, it’s undone by poor writing.
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