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| FOREST WHITAKER stars in LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER |
LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER
2013, 132 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing
images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking
Review by Joshua Handler
Lee Daniels’ The
Butler is the biggest piece of Oscar bait that I’ve seen all year. It is being released around the same time
that The Help, another Civil Rights
drama, was released two years ago, it has an Oscar-nominated director (Lee
Daniels) and acclaimed screenwriter (Danny Strong), and it stars Forest
Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Robin Williams,
Jane Fonda, and many others (all of the aforementioned actors are Oscar-winners,
save for Winfrey who was Oscar-nominated for her powerful performance in
Spielberg’s The Color Purple). That being said, it is nowhere near Oscar
caliber, save for the superb performances by Whitaker and Winfrey. The
Butler was inspired by a true story and tells the story of Cecil Gaines, an
African-American man born in the South in the 1920s who becomes a butler in the
White House and ends up serving multiple presidents and living through the
Civil Rights movement.
This movie is such a mixed bag, so I’ll start with the
good. Forest Whitaker gives an
understated performance that is one of his best. Because Gaines cannot take an active role in
politics and cannot join the Civil Rights movement, he has to internalize
everything. Whitaker’s performance is so
impressive because he conveys so much while saying so little. A simple look from him is like a window into
his character’s soul. Winfrey looks as
if she’s having a blast playing Gloria, Cecil’s wife. It is great to see Winfrey back on the big
screen. I think she’s a very talented
actress and in The Butler, she shows
why she should be on the big screen, rather than the small one. She is fun to watch. She’s energetic, but is powerful in her more
dramatic scenes. She brings all of the
passion and fire that she brings to her other projects into this film. David Oyelowo is solid as Cecil and Gloria’s
politically active son. Lenny Kravitz
and Cuba Gooding, Jr. co-star as Cecil’s co-workers in the White House and are
a lot of fun to watch. Gooding hasn’t
been this good in years. The
performances of big-name actors as presidents is a mixed bag, though. James Marsden is excellent as John F.
Kennedy, Alan Rickman is surprisingly good as Ronald Reagan, but John Cusack is
miscast as Nixon, and Williams (an actor who I greatly admire) is severely
miscast as Eisenhauer (he is a dead ringer for Truman in this movie).
The film has some genuinely funny moments, and the voiceover
works surprisingly well here (I normally hate it). Since Cecil is such an emotionally closed-off
man, the VO complements his performance nicely.
It is also obvious that Lee Daniels cares about this project. He doesn’t do a very great job directing, but
the passion is there and that is admirable.
Daniels is best known for his Oscar-nominated direction
2009’s excellent Precious: Based on the
Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, a forceful film that required little restraint. The
Butler is a film that needs subtlety and restraint to succeed, two things
that Daniels does not bring to this film.
At times, The Butler veers
into melodrama, others just trashy drama.
The Butler gets a bit
outrageous when it shouldn’t, which does a disservice to its respectful
nature. Because the film turns to
Daniels’ trash instincts (while I haven’t seen Daniels’ notorious 2012 film The Paperboy, reports are that it is
quite trashy), large tonal shifts occur, which disrupt the flow of the movie.
The horrible editing also disrupts the flow of the
film. Something just feels off
throughout. The first chunk of the movie
moves at a nice pace. However, once Ford
and Carter’s administrations are about to be addressed, they are completely skipped
over and replaced with an odd montage.
Every other president before them had been given screen time and a piece
of the story, but Ford and Carter’s administrations and their effects on Cecil
are not shown, causing the final part of the film to be rushed. The film ends with Obama’s election, and this
section is handled very poorly, as it is too political for a largely apolitical
film. It is heavy-handed and should’ve
been dealt with much better than it is here.
Danny Strong’s (Game Change)
screenplay plays a large role in the aforementioned issues. The grandiose score is interspersed with pop
songs and this frequently overplays the drama and takes the seriousness out of
many serious situations like a sit-in in a southern diner.
Overall, I couldn’t recommend seeing Lee Daniels’ The Butler, but I wouldn’t discourage people from
seeing it because there is a lot to like about it. It is a film made to be a crowd-pleaser and
it will certainly please those who like their history simplistic and Forrest Gump-like. Others will be maddened by the disservice
that this movie does to its source. I,
however, thought that it is a well-acted and entertaining film that just could
have been so much better.
2.5/4
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