The Words Get In The Way (Movie Review: The Words)

"The Words," as a film, has a very complex set up. It is a film about a book within a book. It is actually two and a half stories in one, so it is quote ambitious ins cope. I liked the layers it slowly peeled. Dennis Quaid plays an author reading from his book, about an author, played by Bradley Cooper who finds a typed manuscript inside an antique briefcase his wife (Zoe Saldana) buys for him at a Paris store. On a lark, he types the story as is, his wife reads it, and persuades him to show the story to a publisher, not knowing it is plagiarized work. It becomes a huge success, and all is well, until an old man (Jeremy Irons) sits next to Cooper at a Central Park bench and introduces himself the author. The old man's back story, set in post WW2 Paris, is also told in sepia-ish flashback. The story unfolds well, and well served by fantastic performances, especially by Bradley Cooper, who shows us he can give us much more than sequels to "The Hangover."  The third act of the movie, which should really be the most interesting part, peters out, and the ending is underwhelming, almost ruining the whole film. Jeremy Irons is fine in the park bench scene, but in a later scene seems to be wandering from a Shakespearean stage, making it all bereft of believability. It seemed to me the writers didn't really know how to end the stories, utilizing cliched elements to wrap things up. Do I think it's worth the time? Perhaps, though I might recommend it more for a rainy night rental.