Mr. Church

Mr. Church is a hidden gem from 2016 starring Eddie Murphy. (My take on Eddie Murphy is that I have always felt he has a wide range as an actor that has gone untapped. I think this movie allows him to stretch a bit from what we are use to seeing him do on the big screen, and he was excellent in this movie.)

Mr. Church is a movie about an individual (Church) that takes on a short term assignment to help a single parent family. The family is small consisting of a mom and daughter. The mom has breast cancer and she is uncertain how long she has to live. You immediately get immersed into the story because we are not sure what motivates Mr. Church to help this family. This is what makes the movie work throughout the entire film. The main character appears without explanation, leaving us to guess what is intrinsically motivating this man to help the family.

This movie reminded me of a quote from my mom I would learn as a child,  "everybody has a story." It was a lesson on how to understand empathy. Stories about people's past are how we learn about ourselves. The human conditions we encounter can be complex, surreal,  and often complicated. People have many layers, especially with complicated pasts. We can learn from their stories if we take the time to get to know them. This is a core theme in this movie.  If you enjoy learning what makes a person "tick", than Mr. Church is gong to be a great film for you to experience.

We learn about Mr. Church, by his examples of generosity. Yet his generosity causes us to have doubts, because we are taught to doubt the context of human kindness through imperfections. We can mistrust someone for having generous thoughts and actions by looking for imperfections, and this is why I absolutely love the simplicity of this movie. I found myself second guessing, and looking for subplots based on my life experiences when I tried to figure out why Mr. Church is so generous to this family.

The movie is simple. We follow Mr. Church through the eyes of Charlie. (The daughter as she grows up) The ending is poetic. Simple yet complex. I truly believe we learn about Mr. Church, and his life can explain some scenarios in our nation that we can not understand. Mr. Church was guarded about his personal life for many reasons. The scenarios running through my mind throughout this movie were not even close to the ending. The ending was a reminder for me that human relationships can be impacted by factors that are hidden and personal. Yet those experiences can bring out the best of us. This is what makes Mr. Church a cerebral viewing experience.