“So words are lies and pictures are…?” asks Jack Marcus (Clive Owen). “Do I actually have to say it?” replies Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche), two teachers who are just at the beginning of their rivalry/attraction for each other in the comedy/drama Words and Pictures.

Jack is a dynamic English teacher at an upscale prep school who’s always getting to his classes late after drinking too much the night before and who finds his students to be uninspired drones failing to see the power and meaning of the words in the novels they’re reading. Dina, a struggling painter who once showed great promise but now, due to her extreme bout with arthritis, can at times barely button her own sweater, has resigned herself to being an art teacher who can, hopefully, inspire a few of her students to think outside the box.

Dina tells her students not to believe words, attempting to teach them that words are lies and they need to get them to look beyond the written word and focus on imagery. Jack’s told of Dina’s statement by one of his students, and he begins a high-spirited competition with the students – many of whom take the same two classes – to put on a display at the end of the term to prove finally which is more powerful and persuasive: words or pictures.

While the “war,” as the students call it, rages on, Jack and Dina find themselves more and more attracted to each other while struggling to wrestle with their own personal handicaps.

Witty at times but suffering from a cluttered script, Words and Pictures strives to be a romantic comedy/drama for adults but ultimately comes up short. Clive Owen delivers a solid performance as Jack Marcus, a past-his-prime English teacher who gets lost in the bottle almost every night to escape the fact that his best work is behind him, but who then finds himself invigorated and passionate about both inspiring his students and starting a possible romance with the new art instructor.

Juliette Binoche is perfect as the dispassionate artist forced, due to the severity of her medical condition, to move closer to family and to take a teaching job. As Dina, Binoche slowly begins to fall for the aloof Jack and finds herself wanting to inspire a few of her talented students. Both Owen and Binoche have genuine chemistry, and the best scenes in the film are with those two constantly trying to one-up the other.

The biggest problem with the film is in its muddled script, which tries to incorporate a love story, an inspiring teacher’s story, a struggling alcoholic coming to terms with his sickness story, and a washed-up artist learning to rediscover her passion story. It’s just way too much jammed into a single film.

Other major problems are the uneven pacing and the distracting soundtrack used in the film. At times the film is a light and witty comedy, then it becomes abruptly serious with scenes of students being harassed and, of course, the over-the-top drinking scenes, which take up most of the second half of the film. The movie never finds the right pace or rhythm, and the songs used, especially in the romantic scenes, are both intrusive and annoying.

Ultimately, Words and Pictures has strong performances by two Grade A actors who can’t rise above and deserve better than a C- script.

GRADE: C

Words and Pictures is rated PG-13 for sexual material, including nude sketches, language, and some mature thematic material.