Rated
PG-13 (Some Violence and Disturbing Images, Language, Sexual Material, Thematic
Elements and Smoking)
Running
Time: 2 Hours & 12 Minutes
Cast-
Forest
Whitaker-Cecil Gaines
Oprah
Winfrey-Gloria Gaines
David
Oyelowo-Louis Gaines
Elijah
Kelley-Charlie Gaines
Cuba
Gooding, Jr.-Carter Wilson
Lenny
Kravitz-James Holloway
Terrence
Howard-Howard
Robin
Williams-President Dwight D. Eisenhower
James
Marsden-President John F. Kennedy
Minka
Kelly-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy
Liev
Schreiber-President Lyndon B. Johnson
John
Cusack-President Richard Nixon
Alan
Rickman-President Ronald Reagan
Jane
Fonda-First Lady Nancy Reagan
Nelsan
Ellis-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mariah
Carey-Hattie Pearl
David
Banner-Earl Gaines
Vanessa
Redgrave-Annabeth Westfall
Alex
Pettyfer-Thomas Westfall
Clarence
Williams III-Maynard
Directed
by Lee Daniels
 |
| Forest Whitaker is White House butler Cecil Gaines, a silent witness during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. |
Note: Screened on Monday, August 5, 2013 at the Ziegfeld Theater (Red Carpet Premiere).
'History
never looks like history when you are living through it,' wrote former Secretary
of Health, Education, and Welfare John W. Gardner in his 1968 book No Easy Victories. If Eugene Allen was
still alive today, the irony of this statement would probably make him laugh because
he literally did live through
history. As a butler at the White House, Allen saw eight presidential administrations
come and go, from Harry S. Truman to Ronald Reagan, and while his name might not
be a mainstay in school textbooks, the fact that he bore witness to history being
made from the most powerful address in the world is significant in and of
itself. Now he's the subject of a major motion picture in "Lee Daniels'
The Butler," set to be released on August 16. The confusing title makes
the film sound like it's based on the life of the director's personal manservant
but is actually the result of a frivolous legal squabble between The Weinstein
Company and Warner Brothers. Apparently, Daniels' film shared the same name of a
1916 silent film, forcing Harvey Weinstein to change it to the possessory title
it has now. As a director, Daniels has been largely hit-or-miss. 2005's
"Shadowboxer" and last year's "The Paperboy" received mixed
to negative reviews while 2009's "Precious" (which also ironically
went through a title change), based on the novel Push by Sapphire, went on to achieve critical acclaim. "The Butler"
(as it shall be called for the rest of this review) doesn't quite match "Precious"
in terms of raw emotional power and occasionally stumbles with moments of over-sentimentalism,
in addition to some strange casting choices, but the film remains a sincere portrait
of one of the most tumultuous periods in American history thanks to Forest Whitaker's
quiet, dignified performance.
Eight-year-old
Cecil Gaines works alongside his family as sharecroppers in the cotton fields
of Macon, Georgia in 1926 but when cruel landowner Thomas Westfall (Alex
Pettyfer) rapes his mother Hattie (Mariah Carey) and murders his father Earl (David
Banner) right before his eyes, the boy is taken in by Westfall matriarch Annabeth
(Vanessa Redgrave), who trains Cecil as an in-house servant. To avoid suffering
the same fate as his father, Cecil leaves the plantation once he turns fifteen.
Forced to break into a bakery after going days without eating, he is found by Maynard
(Clarence Williams III), who offers Cecil a job as a butler in the same store
he broke into. Cecil (Forest Whitaker) eventually moves to Washington, D.C. and
takes a position at an elite hotel, the Excelsior. He also meets his wife Gloria
(Oprah Winfrey) while working there and has two children with her, Louis and Charlie.
After being noticed by a White House administrator, Cecil lands the job of a
lifetime in 1957 as a butler at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His tenure at the
White House allows him to witness history in the making every day as presidents
come and go but trouble begins to brew at home when his eldest son Louis (David
Oyelowo) decides to join the burgeoning civil rights movement against his
wishes.
Loosely
inspired by Wil Haygood's 2008 Washington Post article A Butler Well Served by This Election, director Lee Daniels'
"The Butler" can at times be too heavy-handed and overly sentimental
yet the film's heart and soul is never in doubt as you watch over eighty years
of history unfold on-screen in two hours and twelve minutes. I'm glad that Eugene
Allen's story is finally being told, even if it is heavily fictionalized. Written
by Danny Strong (who won a Primetime Emmy for his work on 2012's "Game Change"),
Cecil Gaines' childhood is largely shown in montage but the film's opening
scenes, set in 1926 Georgia, immediately strike a chord with its matter-of-fact
bluntness as you see his mother brutally raped (this is shown off-screen) and
his father murdered with a gunshot to the head by the plantation's ruthless
owner. The story moves quickly, glossing over Cecil's tutelage under Maynard and
before you know it, he's already at the White House. It's here that Strong's
screenplay takes an interesting dramatic turn as the plot divides in two, with one
focusing on the domestic turmoil between Cecil and his estranged son Louis and
the other serving as more of a condensed history lesson of how far America has
come in terms race relations. You're essentially getting two movies in one here
and sometimes the pacing can get bogged down as it jumps between them.
By
far the strongest half of the story is the one involving Cecil's frustrations as
a father as he tries to deal with his eldest son's burgeoning radicalism. Against
his father's wishes, Louis decides to attend Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee and immediately joins the growing civil rights movement. Daniels doesn't
shy away from the extreme racism that African Americans suffered during that era
and there's a harrowing scene where Louis, along with his fellow classmates, are
physically and verbally assaulted by white supremacists while they participate
in a sit-in at a diner. In his eyes, Louis feels that his father is just perpetuating
the status quo by remaining in a subservient position and Daniels plays on their
conflict visually with a clever montage that shifts between Cecil going through
his routine at the White House and his son getting arrested during a violent
showdown at a sit-in. Fortunately, Louis slowly comes to understand the work
ethic his father lives by when Martin Luther King, Jr. (Nelsan Ellis) eloquently
explains that people like Cecil 'are subversive without even knowing it.' Cecil
may not be an active participant in civil rights and his triumphs are small in
scope (his most significant act is getting a raise for himself and his fellow butlers)
but what makes his side of the story so affecting is the way this simple man reacts
to the history being made around him.
Less
successful is Cecil's interactions with the various presidents that he serves under
during his thirty-year tenure at the White House (curiously, Gerald Ford and Jimmy
Carter are absent). This is when "The Butler" devolves into an
exercise of mawkish over-sentimentalism. The most glaring issue here is the blatant
stunt casting as the people look nothing
like the real-life historical figures they've been chosen to play. Let's take Robin
Williams' Dwight D. Eisenhower as an example. No matter how much make-up you lather
on him, Robin Williams will still look like…Robin Williams. Every time a new president
shows up, it takes you out of the film. James Marsden sounds like Mayor Quimby
from "The Simpsons" as John F. Kennedy and John Cusack bears
absolutely no resemblance to Richard Nixon. Liev Schreiber comes close as Lyndon
B. Johnson and he has a funny scene where he's barking orders to members of his
Cabinet while sitting on the toilet constipated. He then asks Cecil to hand him
more prune juice. Another issue is the way the film insinuates that Cecil
inspired the presidents he served to support integration and voting rights from
just one conversation. This saintly
portrayal clashes with the everyman tone from Cecil's domestic life.
With
the exception of the awful miscasting of the various presidential figures that
move in and out of the film, the performances for the rest of the cast remain
uniformly excellent. Forest Whitaker's turn as Cecil Gaines probably won't earn
him the same acclaim he received for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in
2006's "The Last King of Scotland" but his sincere and dignified
performance goes a long way in smoothing out the film's more glaring flaws. Returning
with her first on-screen acting role in fifteen years, Oprah Winfrey initially strikes
an odd tone as Cecil's bored housewife Gloria, moving from outrageous camp to
soap operatic melodrama yet to my surprise, her performance works and many of
the film's more humorous moments are delivered by her. However, it is David
Oyelowo who strikes the biggest chord as Cecil's estranged son Louis. Oyelowo
captures the triumphs and hardships of the civil rights movement, to the point
where he becomes the heart of Daniel's film. Rounding out the cast is Cuba
Gooding, Jr. and Lenny Kravitz as two White House butlers who become Cecil's
closest confidantes. The two deliver fun and engaging performances in their
individual roles, especially Gooding, Jr.
To
be released on August 16, 2013, "The Butler" has been receiving positive
reviews and currently stands at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. Whether it achieves the
same level of success as 2011's "The Help" remains to be seen;
however the film did receive a standing ovation during its world premiere. It
should do reasonably well at the box office given its low production budget
($25 million) and adults have been neglected for the better part of the summer.
Despite its over-sentimentality and off-putting casting choices, "The
Butler" manages to rise above these flaws and serve as a reminder that we
should never forget America's ugly past but more importantly, it asks us to
celebrate the smallest triumphs because sometimes, they turn out to be the most
important.
Final
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
"Everything
you are, and everything you have is because of that butler."
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