Mr. Church
Short description
Mr. Church is a drama about an unusual bond that forms when a talented cook, Henry Joseph Church, is hired to look after a woman and her young daughter. Henry has been engaged by the mother's former partner to care for the household until Marie, who is terminally ill, dies. What is meant to be a short arrangement instead stretches across many years, as Marie lives far longer than expected. Her daughter Charlie is initially wary of the stranger in their kitchen, but over time the two build a closeness that comes to feel like family.
The film was directed by Bruce Beresford, the eighteenth of the twenty features he has made, arriving between Peace, Love & Misunderstanding and Ladies in Black. Susan McMartin wrote the screenplay, and the cast is led by Eddie Murphy as Henry Church, with Britt Robertson as Charlie, Natascha McElhone as Marie, and Xavier Samuel, Lucy Fry and Christian Madsen in supporting roles. The production had a modest budget of eight million dollars.
On TMDB, Mr. Church holds a rating of 7.4 out of 10 from 544 votes, a positive response from the users who have seen it.
What's left behind the scenes
- Samuel L. Jackson was initially cast in the role of Mr. Church.
- The second film in Eddie Murphy's acting career in which his character dies.
- The film features excerpts from Gustave Flaubert's (1821–1880) novel 'Madame Bovary' (1856) and Joseph Conrad's (1857–1924) 'The Corsair' (1923).
- The film's working title was 'The Cook,' then it was renamed 'Henry Joseph Church' (the full name of the character played by Eddie Murphy), and finally shortened to 'Mr. Church'.
- For some time, David Anspaugh was the film's director, but he later left the project.
- Among the books Mr. Church places on the shelf, one can spot 'Death of a Citizen,' the first in the famous series of spy novels about Matt Helm written by Donald Hamilton.
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