Eddie Murphy In Talks For Netflix Mockumentary About '60s Soul Singer
Eddie Murphy is back for his first film in four years, and it's not what many of his fans may expect.
Murphy will be starring in Mr. Church as the the film's namesake, a cook who is hired to care for a young girl named Charlie (Britt Roberson) and her mother (Natasha McElhone), who has recently been diagnosed of breast cancer. Charlie dislikes Mr. Church initially, but the two grow to be close friends. As Slash Film points out, the trailer has familiar Driving Ms. Daisy vibes.
Eddie Murphy's legend has been built off of comedy - from standup classics like Delirious and Raw, to films like Coming To America, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. But he has dramatic chops, too: he won multiple awards for his portrayal of James 'Thunder' Early in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. His most recent film was a commercial and critical flub though: A Thousand Words, which co-starred Murphy and Kerry Washington, has a zero percent rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, and made $22,044,277 worldwide against an estimated budget of $40 million.
Mr. Church debuted in April at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it has received mixed reviews. One critic reviewed to the film as an "unusually bad melodrama," and another said that the film's racial dynamics make it feel "like the ghost of cinema's past." But other critics specifically praised Murphy's acting. IndieWire wrote, "Murphy delivers the most subdued performance of his career, but one that taps into the strengths of the star-powered charisma that has made him such an irrepressible icon of modern Hollywood."
Moviegoers can see for themselves when the film is released on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016.
