A Thousand Words

Everyone is quick to jump on Eddie Murphy for starring in strange comedies that ultimately become failures. But honestly, he’s already starred in hugely successful films. Let him do what he wants. Now, I say this after watching A Thousand Words, which is by no means as bad as some of his other flops. A Thousand Words has Murphy playing a talkative literary agent who learns the importance of his words after a tree appears in his background with leaves that are directly linked to how much he speaks. When all the leaves fall off the tree, he will die. Yes, that’s a pretty dumb premise.

The general progression of the film is flawed for a number of reasons. The lead isn’t a particularly evil person to begin with. So this curse is a bit strange. Then when he discovers the situation, he refuses to use his words to explain anything to his wife or save his job. But he does get drunk one night and sing a lot, wasting most of his remaining leaves. When the convoluted story finally makes sense, in the film’s last act, there is this colossal shift from ridiculous humor to dense philosophical discussion. It’s strangely jarring. A number of people around me were even crying when things got serious.

It’s fine to have a message in a comedy, but the scenes where we learn Murphy’s character is physically linked to the tree are too stupid to keep any credibility. He has a tickling fit when squirrels chase each other up the trunk and he gets high when the gardener sprays pesticide on it. Just dumb. A Thousand Words is moderately funny and maybe slightly inspirational. Neither aspect is done well enough to call the film a success. Let’s see where Eddie goes from here.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.