A Thousand Words (PG-13)

         Most of us speak billions of words throughout our lifetime. A great number of which have no purpose whatsoever. But what if we could only say a thousand words? How would we communicate? What would happen to our life? A Thousand Words explores that possibility. Starring the comic genius Eddie Murphy, A Thousand Words is a comedy that left me disappointed. I felt that there were many chances to make this movie great that director Brian Robbins simply missed.

McCall struggles to communicate

         Literary agent Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) is a fast-talking man who will say anything to make the deal. Until, that is, he lies while making a deal with a guru named Sinja (Cliff Curtis). Soon after his meeting with Sinja, a tree with a thousand leaves pops up in McCall's back yard. Every time McCall says a word a leaf falls off the tree. Sinja explains to McCall that the agent is spiritually connected to the tree and if he uses up all of the trees leaves with his words, he will die. Chaos ensues as McCall struggles to find ways of keeping his job and his family without speaking. Frustrated by McCall's lack of words, his wife, Caroline (Kerry Washington) takes their son and leaves him. Quickly sinking into depression, McCall gets all of his affairs in order (and with only three leaves left) and visits his late father's grave. Finally finding peace with his father, McCall utters the words: "I forgive you" and dies. However seconds later, McCall comes back to life enlightened.
          When I watched this ending, the only thing I could do was shake my head. This scene did not have the profound impact on the audience that I believe it was supposed to. It was a cheesy idea and very unoriginal. The fact that McCall resurrected so soon after he dropped dead, made the whole threat of death seem irrelevant. If McCall was always going to come back to life seconds after he died, why kill him off in the first place?
         Another issue that I had with A Thousand Words was the character of Jack McCall himself. This basic character was another part of this movie that was unoriginal. This was just another film where the main character is a man too wrapped up in his work to realize that he is hurting the people close to him. Quite a large number of movies are like this. To be specific, the Jim Carrey movie, Liar Liar comes to mind. Eddie Murphy's character in A Thousand Words is almost exactly the same as Carrey's in Liar Liar. Both are pathological liars who's work is so important to them that they fail to notice how much they are hurting their loved ones. The only difference is that instead of having the inability to lie, Murphy's character can only say a certain number of words. In short, McCall was not an original character and was therefore not as funny as an original character would be.
           One of the few redeeming values in A Thousand Words was Eddie Murphy. True, Murphy was given a bum character but he worked with what he had and made McCall as funny as he could. The comedic genius of Eddie Murphy is always a great thing to have in any film. He certainly drew quite a few laughs from me as I watched.
           A Thousand Words is a film that is funny to watch once and then forget about it. This was certainly not a film that I will watch again. This film could have been worthwhile but it fell on its face instead. I believe that A Thousand Words deserves 2 out of 5 stars. Thanks for reading! Keep a lookout for my next review: Life of Pi.



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