Jack (Eddie Murphy) is like “Ari” from Entourage… a hot shot literary agent, who abuses his wife, his assistant and his quality of life in general. He walks the walk and talks the talk until he can’t talk anymore. When he tries to represent the book of Dr Sinja (Cliff Curtis) a Holistic healer who dispels corny Dalai Lama advice, Murphy is up against discovering his inner self at 10% profit for Dr. Sinja’s booksale.
But when a mysterious tree shows up in Murphy’s backyard, he discovers it has 1,000 leaves. Each time he speaks, one leaf represents one word. Once the tree is bare, Murphy could die. So silence is golden.
A bad version of the Oscar winning The Artist in where silence really is golden, this film jumps all over the map before turning into another Oscar nominee, The Tree of Life – getting very serious and dark about midway through. One would suppose the message is to use your words wisely. If you had ten words left what might you say to a loved one. I’d say “What were you thinking Eddie?” A waste of a talent in Eddie Murphy who’s capable of so much more than this. One and a half tiaras