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- iHaveNet.com: Movie Reviews
"The Butler" Movie Review: 2 1/2 Stars
by Michael Phillips
The best scenes in "Lee Daniels' The Butler" -- a family farewell at a bus station; a few drinks and a few dangerous glances among friends in an ordinary Washington, D.C., living room -- steer clear of the
The supporting cast of "The Butler" is being described by the
It's up to the steady and astute performance by Forest Whitaker to keep "The Butler" from caving in under its own "Forrest Gump" sponge-of-history tendencies. This being a Daniels picture, shot every which way and going for the throat every second, grandiosity is inevitable discussing anything made by the man behind "Precious" (extremely effective) and "The Paperboy" (hilarious in its excess). So let's put it this way: Like America itself, the movie's a stimulating tangle.
The director, along with screenwriter Danny Strong, who wrote the Sarah Palin-HBO biopic "Game Change," gives us a story that is a little bit true but mostly true-ish or true-esque, about a
Cast out on his own, Cecil soon finds himself up north and schooling himself in the ways of the hospitality industries. He is blessed and cursed with the ability to seem "invisible" while in the service of white folks. Working at a swank D.C. hotel bar, he gets his
Cecil has that Gumpian knack for just being there and, with a few utterances, re-routing the river of history. A word or two in Eisenhower's ear about segregation -- bam, two steps forward. A sentence or three spoken in the presence of JFK (James Marsden), and boom -- a great man acquires the courage to be even greater. With LBJ, here depicted by Liev Schreiber, an equivocating heart and mind is forever changed. (This script really is a bit silly, for all its real-world anguish.) Meantime, Cecil's oldest, the firebrand Louis (David Oyelowo), becomes a disciple of Dr. King and then Malcolm X and, no less than his father, a witness to massive historical events.
It takes a while, but Cecil himself finally becomes a stealth agitator, nudging his employers in the direction of better pay and an occasional shot at advancement. Whitaker is such a forceful presence, you wonder initially if he'll convince in such a recessive role. (In a Daniels film the women get all the juicy scenes and, usually, the exit zingers.) But he's first-rate in the part, such as it is. Cecil's conceived as a blinkered, virtually asexual man, preoccupied with appearances, unable to process who Louis has become.
"We're trying to change the nation's consciousness about the American Negro!" Louis lectures his father at one point, speaking like no actual revolutionary on Earth. It's too bad "The Butler" doesn't afford Whitaker the spacious acting opportunity that, say, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" handed Cicely Tyson 39 years ago. On the other hand, his on-screen cohorts are no doubt happy "The Butler" tells a lot of different stories, some more effectively than others.
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking).
Running time: 2:12.
Cast: Forest Whitaker (Cecil Gaines); Oprah Winfrey (Gloria Gaines); John Cusack (Richard Nixon); David Oyelowo (Louis Gaines); Lenny Kravitz (James Holloway).
Credits: Directed by Lee Daniels; written by Daniels and Danny Strong, based on the article by Wil Haygood; produced by Daniels, Buddy Patrick, Cassian Elwes, Laura Ziskin and Pamela Oas Williams. A
"Lee Daniels' The Butler" is a look at the life of Cecil Gaines who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986, and had a unique front-row seat as political and racial history was made.
Article: Copyright © Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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