Eddie deserved better

Mr. Church's story was sadly way too unimportant (or not significant enough) in the movie, which is really sad considering the name of the movie is his name. Where this movie goes wrong is advertising a narrative that the story is about this generous black man; when in actuality it was solely about a white girl who considered him only an important part of her life (He's talked about only from her perspective and given character only through her perspective). He was given no real characterization and only severed as a plot device to save the girl from her own mistakes, promote sympathy from the audience with his good naturedness, while it also intentionally or unintentionally tries to use him to depict a good example of racial relations (very poorly might I add- considering he never feels like an actual person through most of the story and more like a guardian angel ). His story should have been a human one; what I mean by that is - instead of making him the guardian angel make him an actual person: don't tell a story about him - tell his story.

I understand that the screenwriter was trying to share her story about a man who she loved and who inspired her; but she could have done that through his perspective. I can't help but feel she didn't do the story justice. I wished she had made the story about him and not herself, because he's by far the more interesting character. It would have been really cool if she had done it that way because it would have given her an opportunity to explore what he was feeling as a black man working for her family as a cook in the 60's. That would have answered questions like: what were his drives? what was his experience? what did he feel? was he always happy or did he want for anything? What was it like for him to be in a service position and then develop an emotional attachment to people who were very different from him?

I think handling the story like that would have made her feel closer to him instead of creating distance by putting him on a pedestal. It would have made the story more meaningful - to her and to the audience.