A Thousand Words (2012)

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to the penultimate movie in his filmography A Thousand Words (2012) Plot In A Paragraph: After stretching the truth on a deal with a spiritual guru, literary agent Jack McCall (Murphy) finds a Bodhi tree on his property. Its appearance holds the consequences of every word he speaks.Murphy reteamed with Brian Robbins the director of Norbit and Meet Dave for this movie. Made in 2008, it was meant to be released in 2010, then it sat on the shelf for another two years, before it was finally released. This movie has serious potential to be a great, touching movie, but it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be!! I certainly would it call it a kids flick. It's really silly at times, then profoundly deep at others. In the hands of a stronger director, with a clear goal, this had the potential to be one of Murphy's best. As it is, it is very disjointed!! I'm not even 100% sure if I understood the end.Partially, this is Murphy's fault. He collaborates with friends rather than strong film-makers. I frequently say that the secret of Tom Cruise's success is that he works with all of the best directors. Murphy is the opposite. He keeps making films with hacks. Who else would make three films with Brian Robbins?? Robbins last three theatrical movies all starred Murphy, and he has not directed anything since this movie. A Thousand Words only grossed $18 million at the domestic box office.

If this movie would be about giving Eddie a chance to use his mimic, than it would have been a great movie. But it's not. Eddie is just a trick to make yet another christmassy movie into theatres. Eddie can be funny. But it's hard with this script: a sort of more christian and family oriented than Liar Liar.

I've enjoyed many of Eddie Murphy's movies over the years, and most of them are quite funny. He continues to show talent, but somehow I felt something was missing, even though Jack's attempts to communicate were hilarious. Ultimately, while this isn't as special as many of his earlier efforts, Murphy is pretty good here.I didn't recognize Kerry Washington, and maybe it's just as well. Considering that she is currently regarded as one of the best actresses on TV, I didn't see anything here to support that idea.As Jack's poor assistant Aaron, Clark Duke's performance varies. It may be just me, but I didn't care much for him at first. But he is hilarious trying to act "street" with professional people thinking that's how Jack would talk, and failing miserably at impressing them. And later Aaron is quite good at helping Jack deal with his problems.This is mostly a comedy, but toward the end it has a deeper meaning and an important lesson, making it more than just the silly mess it started out to be.I want to point out two more acting performances, one brief and one more significant. John Witherspoon is wonderful as the father of the President of the United States in "The First Family", and while he is only on screen for a few seconds as a blind man trying to cross the street, he shows just as much talent as on his TV series, in a scene that is one of the movie's funniest.And Ruby Dee as Jack's mother who is losing her memory gives the movie's standout performance. She doesn't say much early on, but later she has a brilliant scene. It's not so much that she is losing her mind. She seems quite normal and intelligent except for the fact she can't comprehend that the man in the room with her is not her husband. I was also impressed by a couple of scenes which I didn't quite understand. Either Jack's young son has gotten older and is telling his father he misses him, or Jack is seeing his younger self. The boy in the scene does quite well.It's not a bad movie, really. Just don't expect anything like Murphy's past successes.

The trouble with this film is that it is a mixture of Liar, Liar and Yes Man and they were already successful both featuring Jim Carrey.Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) is a literary agent who uses his spiel to get book deals for his clients and willing to stretch the truth to do it. He is trying to get a book deal from a New Age self-help guru, Dr Sinja (Cliff Curtis) who sees through his deceit. Later that night, a Bodhi Tree magically appears in his backyard. Jack discovers that for every word that Jack says, a leaf will fall off of the tree. When the tree runs out of leaves, the tree will die and so will Jack.In time Jack finds that even written words count towards his limit and if anything happens to the tree will also affect Jack. When Jack tries to cut it down with an axe, an axe wound appears on him. When squirrels climb the tree, it tickles him. Jack has to deal with life as a man of few words which causes chaos at work and with his personal life. Of course over time Jack becomes a better person as he deals with some past issues in his life regarding his father. You cannot help but smile when he gives the Beatles White album to the Starbucks's worker or finally reads the script from a valet parking attendant and signs him up (the actor playing the attendant is also a writer.)The film is charming and involving its just not very funny or involves the usual Murphy persona or Jim Carrey style slapstick. Murphy is reined in here which turns off his usual fans and the story is derivative because we have seen it before but its enjoyable in its own right.