A Thousand Words
Tagline: Make Every Word Count
Hey, Eddie Murphy fans! Still sad that he didn’t end up hosting the Oscars? Help is at hand in the form of his new film, A Thousand Words, released a mere two weeks after he would have hosted.
Murphy plays Jack McCall, a fast-talking literary agent. (Though when it comes to the movies, is there any other kind?) McCall calls upon the New Age guru Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis) for his own selfish purposes, but the Doc sees him coming from a mile away, and Jack’s life falls apart after a magical tree appears in his backyard (don’t overthink this, it just happens). Now we have a situation where, with each word he utters, a leaf falls from the tree. When the last one falls, both he and the tree are done for. Can McCall stop talking and figure out a clever way to get his message across?
The obvious link must be with his one-time Oscar producer, Brett Ratner, putting his foot in his mouth last year, which led to them both stepping down from the awards show gig. Perhaps the reviewers will reference it but, at the time of writing, no write-ups were available. Being speechless may be an intrinsic part of the movie but it’s hard to see such an attitude helping the all-important word-of-mouth.