Mr. Church Reviews (original) (raw)
Summary Mr. Church tells the story of a unique friendship that develops when a little girl and her dying mother retain the services of a talented cook - Henry Joseph Church (Eddie Murphy). What begins as a six month arrangement instead spans fifteen years, and creates a family bond that lasts forever.
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Summary Mr. Church tells the story of a unique friendship that develops when a little girl and her dying mother retain the services of a talented cook - Henry Joseph Church (Eddie Murphy). What begins as a six month arrangement instead spans fifteen years, and creates a family bond that lasts forever.
The film is emotionally manipulative, to be sure, but it's ultimately hard to resist, especially given the quality of the lead performances.
No matter how effective Murphy (great in his first film role in four years) or Robertson is, the fact they are driven by external forces rather than internal can’t be ignored.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
I watched "Mr. Church" and enjoyed it immensely. I wrote a Facebook post in which I highly recommended it to my friends and wondered why it had not received much wider distribution in theaters and much more critical acclaim. Then I read an absolutely scathing review of it in which I was informed that Eddie Murphy was playing the role of a "servile Negro" who was a closeted gay man and that such a blatantly politically incorrect film is unsuitable for contemporary audiences. (The story was set in the 70s and 80s and was supposedly based on real events. Perhaps the reviewer believes certain stories simply should remain untold.) I don't believe I'm lacking in intellect or perceptiveness, but I must confess that I found the movie heartwarming and inspirational rather than offensive. Eddie Murphy's character would have been noble regardless of his race because Mr. Church demonstrated self-sacrifice and love. As is often demonstrated, there is an immense gulf separating the viewpoints of average Americans from those of journalists who dwell in cocoons that insulate them from--to put it bluntly--normalcy.
Get out your handkerchiefs, but don’t expect to believe a minute of this vastly improbable tale.
It flails for the heartstrings, but instead of reaching them, it only tugs at that muscle that makes you roll your eyes at its old-fashioned, melodramatic attempts at emotion.
It’s the film’s racial politics, particularly its stereotypical evocation of willing servitude by an African-American, and its characters’ refusal to acknowledge this imbalance of power, which make it not so much old-fashioned as downright retrograde – and likely to go down even worse with black audiences than Driving Miss Daisy.
Bruce Beresford's film is remarkable for how it manages to indulge so many offensive and shopworn clichés at once.
There’s nothing wrong with melodrama. But in order to break the dishes, movies have to be willing to build tension by holding something back. Mr. Church, however, is all reveal, constantly giving everything away in the most obvious fashion.
SJWs really, really hate this movie. Meaning it is really worth watching. Too many movies and TV shows that are really bad get favorable reviews around here if they portray a liberal type view. It's really ridiculous and they should all be judged based mostly on their entertainment value not just because you agree with them politically. Eddie Murphy is a great actor and this movie has been judged not on its quality but on how someone thinks they SHOULD feel about it. You can't change history but you can and should learn from it.
God, I so wanted to love this movie! Eddie Murphy for Chrissake! Looking luminously beautiful. But, the script is overwought, overwritten and, in the end, leaden. Without creating a "spoiler," any actual writer would have known where to make the major story-break. Too many secondary characters with too thin back-stories. Ironically, since so much of the narrative revolves around cooking, their seems not to have been a recipe for this screenplay. Watch it anyway just to revel in Eddy.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
It was nice to see Eddie Murphy back in a movie on the big screen, however I wish it was something better than this. MR. CHURCH is emotionally manipulative and full of awkward and awful dialogue, with lines such as "don't you know? Miracles run in the Brody family!" making me cringe. The whole film also screams "magical negro" with Murphy being the saving grace time and time again. Murphy is never given a chance to show his charisma and is instead trapped in a boring film.
Mr. Church is about an African-American cook-slash-servant (Mr. Church) who develops a relationship with a family member who initially condemns his presence **** fifteen minutes. Mr. Church is actually about an African American cook-slash servant who becomes acquainted with a family member who appreciated his comfort in her kind-of difficult **** the rest of the movie. That would be fine if the people behind the camera developed a trying, but complex relationship like the one displayed in Inside Out or Room, but they only scratch the surface and bore the average moviegoer for 105 minutes, time that is better spent watching Don't Think Twice (2016). The characters are not only based off of stereotypes, but they are considerably boring because they don't learn anything. Any conflict that, when focused on, could have paved the way for a deep film that had something to say about something was nuked after just around fifteen minutes. I have barely seen a film, like this, that tries every idea in the book to make you sad and in the end, it can't focus on that idea and adds to the sappiness of it all. It is a waste of time; wait for or find better movies.
Production Company Cinelou Films, Envision Media Arts, Shenghua Entertainment, Voltage Pictures
Release Date Sep 16, 2016
Duration 1 h 44 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline He was the one person she could always count on.
Shanghai International Film Festival
Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA)