Two Words For 'A Thousand Words...'

Two Words For ‘A Thousand Words…’

Posted by IV on March 11, 2012 // Leave Your Comment

( 4UMF NEWS ) Two Words For A Thousand Words:

Sometimes a movie is so funny the lack of a fully developed storyline is overshadowed by the laughs. This is not the case with A Thousand Words.

In an interview, Eddie Murphy said he has enough money and lives comfortably enough to pick and choose the movies he wants to do as opposed to an obligation to the studio. That was said after he did A Thousand Words which was actually filmed in 2008.This movie had to have been done out of obligation to the studio.

The actor/comedian plays slick-talking literary agent Jack McCall hell-bent on signing new-age guru phenom Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis) to a book deal. Somehow through the process McCall, gets mysteriously linked to a Bohdi tree that looses a leaf with every word. When all the leaves are gone the tree is dead and so is he. No longer can the fast-talking man blessed with the gift of gab get his way with empty words. Aaron Wiseberger (Clark Duke) is his overly enthusiastic assistant. Wiseberger has to do the talking for McCall who struggles to communicate.

Kerry Washington plays the emotional wife Caroline who boo-hoos and cries about McCall not being a family man so much, you start to forget how beautiful she is. Even in a scene where she’s dressed up as a dominatrix, Caroline still manages to complain and cry. McCall has to deal with this, along with trying to broker one of the biggest deals of his career. And cope with this Alzheimer-stricken mother (Ruby Dee). Without talking. Or writing, which counts as words, too.

All of this culminates in one final emotional scene where McCall realizes he is the man who he is because of an absentee father. Did I not mention the absentee father before? Writer Steve Koren barely did. McCall having his (I’m quoting Oprah Winfrey here) ‘aha’ moment from a storyline that was not fully developed is unfulfilling. There are a few genuine laughs scattered throughout the movie, far too little for a comedic genius like Murphy and surprisingly more laughs came from Duke’s nervous yet eager to please character. But there are not enough laughs to carry the film.

I have just two words for anyone contemplating going to see A Thousand Words: don’t bother.