Mr. Church: Eddie Murphy, Britt Robertson exclusive clip

It’s been nearly a decade since he flexed his dramatic chops opposite Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson on the big screen in Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls, but now Eddie Murphy is returning to the genre that earned him an Oscar nomination as he takes Mr. Church to the Tribeca Film Festival.

The drama takes place in Los Angeles throughout the 1960s, where a young girl and her cancer-stricken mother form a close bond with a hired cook after a six-month service gig blossoms into a 15-year friendship. Costarring Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland, The Longest Ride) and Natascha McElhone (Californication) in a script written by Susan McMartin (Two and a Half Men), Mr. Church was directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy).

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Following a string of comedies in recent years that underperformed (Norbit, Meet Dave, Imagine That), Murphy told The Washington Post during a 2015 interview he was finished working on projects solely for the money. “The check movies are over for me,” he said, also noting that he agreed to do Mr. Church simply because he liked the script.

Mr. Church screens Friday through Sunday as part of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Watch as a discussion about ice cream turns into a heated exchange in the exclusive clip from the film, above, and see the film’s poster below.