Eddie Murphy sews his mouth shut

A THOUSAND WORDS (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

When Eddie Murphy lets loose like a raging motormouth with words spoken at roughly 100 words a minute, he is unparalleled in his quick, caffeinated energy. Murphy also has the presence of a real actor, able to say much without actually speaking. The list of quiet, restrained moments in his ouevre are numerous. "A Thousand Words" has a great comic premise - each time Murphy speaks, a leaf falls from a tree and when they all shed, he dies. But this movie is one of those cases where Murphy strains too hard to keep up the momentum and that is thanks to a screenplay that doesn't play fair with the rules.

Murphy is Jack McCall, a greedy literary agent who has no time to wait in line at Starbucks for a coffee (he feigns a call about his wife in labor with twins). At work, he treats his assistant with minor meanness (let's say it is hardly a tenth of what Kevin Spacey's truly vile character did in "Swimming with Sharks"). Jack is married to Caroline (Kerry Washington) and they have a son together - she wants to move to a bigger house that doesn't resemble a bachelor pad.

Meanwhile, Jack decides to publish and make a mint out of an Indian guru's book that is only five pages long. Sensing a lack of spirituality in Jack, I had initially thought that the guru planted a bodhi tree in Jack's backyard, hence the main plot about each leaf dropping after every word is said by Jack. Apparently not. The tree just emerges from the ground and the guru has no idea how it happened. Eh. And Jack can't even write anything down because a leaf will fall out of the tree after every word that is written. Double eh. See what I mean by unfair? And to complicate matters, Jack can't form a single sentence, and why not? He has 1000 words at his disposal - can't he chuck 500 words out and make his wife believe that he loves her, especially during an S&M tryst at a hotel? She begs him to tell her his true feelings and he can't or won't - that just tries my patience.

I did not hate "A Thousand Words" unlike the critics who had a field day with it. For my Eddie Murphy experiences (exempting "Pluto Nash" which I never had the pleasure), "Best Defense" is possibly his worst and "Harlem Nights," his most savagely unfunny. This movie never fully exploits its premise and never goes the extra mile. In short, it doesn't give Murphy much of a chance to shine. "A Thousand Words" is yet another movie about a soulless, greedy, spiritually bankrupt guy who discovers money isn't everything and family is all he needs. However, Jack is hardly that greedy or that soulless, and he doesn't seem like a bad guy before all the madness sets in. Jack is a nice guy with some issues. Is that what we expect from an Eddie Murphy movie nowadays?