Review of Mr. Church (2016) by Patrick L — 16 Mar 2017

"A festival of Hallmark movie cliches".

DVD Movie Review: Mr. Church.

Date Viewed: December 3 2016.

Directed By Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Double Jeopardy, Tender Mercies, King David, Last Dance and Paradise Road).

Written By Susan McMartin.

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Britt Robertson, Natascha McElhone, Lucy Fry, Christian Madsen, Xavier Samuel, Mckenna Grace and Thom Barry.

The suckiness of this movie is extreme. "Mr. Church" is barely a movie, it's a festival of Hallmark movie cliches. The only good thing in this movie is Eddie Murphy, he's gives one of his better performances in a movie that only requires him to be the helpful Negro cook in need. Despite Murphy's fine work here, the entire movie feels hokey and gooey to it's core. "Mr. Church" is Eddie Murphy's first movie in four years and it's good to have him back in movies after a long string of box office flops but sadly he's stuck in a shoebox sentimentally world only Nicholas Sparks would appreciate.

Murphy plays the title character Mr. Church, who is a cook and will be the manservant to Marie Brooks (Natascha McElhone) and her daughter, Charlotte (Britt Robertson). Mr. Church is the finest cook in the world to Marie but Charlotte doesn't like him at first. Charlotte then comes to appreciate Mr. Church, his delicious cooking and fine book collection but his mother is not doing well. Marie has breast cancer and she only has six months to live. What was supposed to be a six month working period for Mr. Church turns into a much longer period than he realized. Six years later, Charlotte is about to graduate from high school and her mother is still living. Charlotte's high school crush, Owen (Xavier Samuel) asks if she wants to go to the prom with her and of course she accepts and her dying mother and Mr. Church are happy for her.

A day after her magical time at the prom, Marie dies from breast cancer and Mr. Church becomes her parental guardian until she leaves for Boston University. Two years later, Charlotte is pregnant, she returns to her hometown and asks Mr. Church if she can live with him. Sometimes during night time when she's asleep, Charlotte wakes up to see Mr. Church drunk and carrying matches from a jazzy bar called Jelly's. One night, a drunk Mr. Church catches Charlotte snooping around his room and demands her to get out of the house all because of breaking their privacy rules.

Soon after, Charlotte bumps into an old friend, a poor military veteran named Larson (Christian Madsen) at a convenient store parking lot. Suddenly, a kid on his skateboard hits Charlotte and she gets knocked unconscious. Larson immediately brings her to the hospital and he made it just in time. Mr. Church comes to the hospital and of course takes Charlotte back into his home. This story is so amazing to her, Charlotte narrates the story for us on how much of an influence Mr. Church was to her.

This repugnant drama was directed by Bruce Beresford who made "Driving Miss Daisy" and he pretty much tells the same story again but this time with Eddie Murphy in the Morgan Freeman role. The screenplay by Susan McMartin is tasteless and inane and "Mr. Church" often at times repeats the same scenes twice especially with the funeral scene where Charlotte expresses her love for the people who are around her and the people who are always with her. The same funeral scene happens again and Charlotte once again expresses her exact same words she gave when her mother passed away but I don't want to give away who dies because it might disappoint the viewers.

"Mr. Church" may have a really good performance in Eddie Murphy but it isn't deserving for a movie that's sucky as bananas from beginning to end.