Silence is golden, but this is the first time it comes with a death tag attached. In A Thousand Words, Eddie Murphy is Jack McCall, a self-centered motor-mouth literary agent whose life gets connected to the leaves of a tree that sprang up in his backyard. With every word he utters, a leaf falls. When the last leaf falls, he dies.

As a rule to characters bred on this brand of comedy, we expect Murphy to be an obnoxious self-gratifying egocentric, with a heart of gold stashed-in there somewhere. Early on in the picture, we see Murphy run through the screenplay with blazing, one-dimensional, verbal alacrity. The scenes are an obligation to establish McCall’s knack for fast-talking and self-centeredness.

We see him skirting a Starbucks line with a phony phone call about his wife (Kerry Washington) being in labor; abuse his trainee agent (a winning Clarke Duke); rush through his psychiatrist session; and visit his dementia-stricken mother (Ruby Dee, in the film’s best heartfelt moments).

His real agenda of the day is to strike a book deal with a New Age Guru (Cliff Curtis). It is there that mystic fate (not Curtis), connects him to the tree. Now what the tree feels, he does too. Water the tree and he gets wet. Douse it with pesticide and he gets woozy. When squirrels run around the trunk, he contorts his body while freakishly giggling. Murphy dons his best rubber-face, ogles his eyes and matches them with desperate hand waving, when the mystic karma sets in. He cannot talk, he cannot write, his marriage is on the rocks (aren’t they always in comedy films) and he has to get a book deal with a major publisher.

One is certain to find bland allusions to similar films. Star vehicles–especially of those who do comedy–often do that. This isn’t new territory and we’ve seen Jim Carrey do better in Liar, Liar.

Eddie Murphy regular, Brian Robbins (Meet Dave, Norbit) directs the film with a laid-back approach, consigning Murphy’s acute comedic-sense to the driver’s seat. It works despite the disadvantages of the generic screenplay by Steve Koren (Click, Bruce Almighty).

I felt A Thousand Words was a better film compared to at least half of Murphy’s filmography. It’s certainly nowhere near the top, but I don’t think the filmmakers aimed for that spot themselves.

Released by Paramount and DreamWorks, A Thousand Words is produced by Nicolas Cage, Alain Chabat, Stephanie Danan, Norman Golightly, Brian Robbins, Sharla Sumpter Bridgett.

The film is rated PG-13. There’s a lot of inarticulate miming from Murphy, a brief scene of matrimonial sensuality, and a lot of a coffee brand’s product placement.