Review

‘A Thousand Words’ makes for lighthearted family fun

Eddie Murphy’s movie, “A Thousand Words,” at first glance did not look that interesting. Though out of all of the movie choices available, this one seemed the most interesting.

I’ve always been fond of Eddie Murphy. He’s funny and always seems to play a family man. This is exactly his character in “A Thousand Words.”

Murphy plays workaholic Jack McCall. McCall is a literary agent from Hollywood that uses his smooth talking skills to get what he wants out of his clients. Though this time, it did not work so well to his advantage.

He messed with the wrong man. When McCall tries to get “New Age” guru, Dr. Sinja’s book published, he lies to the doctor and winds up having a magical tree spring up in his backyard.

This tree is called a Bodhi tree, and it only has a thousand leaves on it.

The leaves represent the thousand words that McCall has left to speak before something awful happens. Every word that McCall says causes one leaf to drop and suddenly a thousand words doesn’t seem like a lot.

As soon as the last leaf drops from this cursed tree, McCall will die. He must find other ways to communicate with the people in his life, or the consequences will be dire.

At first, Murphy’s character does not believe what this tree can do. It turns out that whatever happens to the tree, happens to him as well. He pushes the limits and causes many leaves to fall in the first few minutes of the tree’s existence.

Throughout the film, McCall struggles to balance work and his family, all while trying not to speak.

He uses action figures to help him take a meeting over the phone, and while that works, his work life goes down hill after that.

While at a lunch meeting, the tree is being watered, which causes McCall to get wet, and at another meeting, his gardener tries to poison the tree to kill it, which causes McCall to have the sensation of being high.

What happens to the tree, happens to Jack.

After getting fired and watching his wife leave him, as she is frustrated with his lack of communication, Jack goes in a downward spiral. The next day, only a few leaves remain on the tree.

After visiting his mother in a nursing home, he decides to use his last words to make amends in his life.

He uses the final three words to forgive his deceased father for abandoning his family.

McCall collapses, supposedly dead. Suddenly he wakes up and feels like a new man.

The movie has a happy ending. He had a new job and his family came back.

I did really enjoy this film. It had a good message about not taking the people you love for granted.

It also showed the importance of communication both at home and at work. It was a cute movie. If you want a light comedy, “A Thousand Words” is a great film.