In recent years, the phrase "all things in the world, only love and food can not be disappointed" has left a deep imprint in people's hearts, and all kinds of food is used to soothe people's hearts and explore the meaning of life, or both.
The film "Mr. Church" integrates the story of love and food, and tells us an ordinary story of redemption and dependence that spans three generations of American countries under the background of various delicious food.
Mr. Church is an American drama film directed by Bruce Bearsford, which features a magical chef at the home of the little girl Charlie, Mr. Church, who takes care of Charlie and her cancer-stricken mother.
Mr. Church returns to his life after Charlie leaves town after attending college, but a few years later, a new story begins like a doomed reincarnation after Charlie and Mr. Church reunite. The film was released in the United States on September 16, 2016.
The film opens in an interesting way, starting with a set of close-ups of cooking with a frame, much like "Eating Men and Women".
In the picture, the audience can only see a pair of black hands fiddling with knives, chopping spices, mixing ingredients, and then cooperating with "Henry Joseph Church can do everything, but he chose to be a chef, and he said that the secret is jazz." The narration, the introduction of the main characters of the film is completed.
At the moment when jazz sounds. Mr. Church's personality is also slightly clearer due to the introduction of jazz, and Mr. Church is pictured smoking a cigarette and cooking for the mother and son in the kitchen of Charlie's house.
As a foreign character in this original family, Mr. Church has appeared in this stable family at the beginning of the film, so his presence at this time seems unacceptable in the eyes of little Charlie — although her mother is not surprised by this, for Mr. Church, Charlie's recognition is the basis of his foothold in this family, and the first narrative problem that the film has to solve.
Thanks to Mr. Church's good cooking, the problem ends with "Mr. Church conquered my stomach and my good friend's", and the film throws up a new suspense - Charlie's mother has breast cancer, according to the doctor's diagnosis is less than six months old.
At this time, Mr. Church's motives for coming to Charlie's house are also revealed, he has worked for Charlie's mother's old lover, and before the death of the last patron, he has entrusted him to take care of Charlie's family, and in six months he will be able to get the money that he will spend for the rest of his life.
During this six-month period, all the expenses of Charlie's family have been set aside in a designated account, and Mr. Church only needs to take care of the daily life of Charlie's mother and daughter. This setting allowed Mr. Church's status as an outsider to be stabilized over a six-month period.
Mr. Church's English translation of Mr. Church, originally meaning church, this naming method also gives the film a touch of mysterious religious overtones, the church as a religious shrine is originally a place of prayer for devout people, but in the film this power generated by prayer seems to be in a state of absence in Charlie's home.
While Charlie was bathing her mother, she had hysterically grabbed her hand and said, "You gave birth to such a naïve girl, and then you pray to God, Lord, help me protect her, you come together every day and start praying, but one day you suddenly get cancer, and then you realize that the greatest harm to her is that you can't stay with her yourself, because you love her so much, you just want to surround her with love, hugs, and kind words, and make good use of every minute and every second you have left." ”
By this time Charlie's mother was terminally ill, and she could not accept the fact that she could not be with her beloved daughter, but after a prayer of devotion, the Lord did not give shade to this poor single mother, and although she had broken the curse of six months and created a miracle, she still could not change the fate of leaving.
In addition to the infiltration of religious emotions in the film, there are philosophical deliberations and poetic presentations of parting and death, and there is such a narration at Charlie's mother's funeral: "People behave very strangely in the face of death, some people can talk about anything but do not mention the deceased person, some people only talk about the deceased person, not talk about anything else, some people want to comfort you, some people will only say something that makes you want to cry, and some people will not say anything, because they don't need to say anything." ”
This narration also appears at Mr. Church's funeral, where people are unable to ask for God's salvation, and they pin all their pursuit of a better life on God, and then work diligently, praying that God will forgive them for the crimes they have committed, and thus live their lives. Perhaps only at the moment of lying in the cemetery can people truly complete their salvation in this life.
Regarding redemption, Mr. Church's last patron only gave him six months of money to maintain the family's livelihood, but as Charlie's mother continued to create medical miracles, this number was constantly refreshed until the sixth year. At this time, Mr. Church has long been a member of Charlie's family, and he still abides by his duties, taking care of Charlie's mother and daughter with all his heart, and using his own money to complete these things.
What kind of motivation is hidden behind such a series of strange behaviors has been a major driving force behind the narrative. But there is no doubt that this omnipotent Mr. Church is the god of Charlie's family, it is he who accompanied Charlie's mother on the last journey of her life, and it was he who fulfilled Charlie's wish to attend Boston University. It was he who completed the redemption of the Charlie family.
The redemption in the film does not only exist in Mr. Church and Charlie's family, Charlie's redemption of Larson and her redemption of her friend Barbie all move us. This is the idea conveyed by the film - "It is not necessarily God who redeems us, it may be someone around us", and we will never know that the people who have helped will help us one day in the future.
When Charlie's mother dies, the film is halfway through, and the second half of the film is what happened between Charlie and Mr. Church. This bisected process seems risky but gives a clear distinction to the film as a whole, which in this film is embodied in "Mother's Time" and "Charlie's Age".
The advantage of this distinction is that we can more clearly distinguish the details of the two eras in the film, so as to compare the two, and it just so happens that the director arranges a lot of small details in the film for the audience to explore—Charlie's pajamas are the same as her daughter's childhood, and Mr. Church's "true vision my darling" when asked twice to "tell her how beautiful she is" spans two generations.
And when mr. Church, who was once omnipotent in the film, finally has gray hair between his sideburns, we realize that he has been with the family for three generations, and he is trying to burn himself to warm the family.
And the reason for his doing so also exploded in the drunken return, Mr. Church had a not-so-happy childhood, he and his father did not have a good relationship, so when he first came to Charlie's home, he was attracted by the love between mother and daughter and the warmth of the family.
This love is something he has never been able to ask for, and he enjoys feeling this warmth in this family, especially after being accepted as a member of the family, his relationship with this family has long gone beyond the employment relationship, and it is the acceptance of Charlie's family to him that has made this story spanning three generations.
But there is always an end to companionship, and when the cough gradually worsens, Mr. Church has not escaped the end of the illness in bed, and the best ending at this time is that Charlie accompanies her daughter Iz to live well with Mr. Church's wishes. Every day is full of laughter, just like when Mr. Church was there.
When measuring how much a person brings to the family, it is not how long he has lived in the family, but how much change his departure will bring to the family.
"People behave very strangely in the face of death, some people can talk about anything but don't mention the person who died, some people only talk about the person who died, don't talk about anything else, some people want to comfort you, some people just say something that makes you want to cry, and some people don't say anything because they don't need to say anything." 」
Just like Mr. Church who witnessed the departure of Charlie's mother, and like Charlie who witnessed Mr. Church's departure, all of this is reincarnation, it is the unfinished fate of the past life, you give me salvation, I still rely on you.