Mickster Movie Review - "Lee Daniels' The Butler" (2013) ***

     Forest Whitaker is one of those quiet, under-appreciated actors who is often much better than the movies he stars in. Even when his films don't work, it's usually not because of him. Director Lee Daniels hasn't made too many films and I'm only familiar with two of his works, but I enjoyed both of them: Monster's Ball (Producer) and Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire (Director). This combination should have no trouble turning out a good product, and they have for the most part, but there are some flaws here.

     Lee Daniels' The Butler (named that for legal reasons), stars Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, a young man who grows up in the deep south on a cotton farm, sees his father murdered by the plantation owner, and sets out on a career path that will lead him to become an expert at being a butler. His skills, and reputation, ultimately lead him to a job at the White House where he will serve the President of the US for a period of over 30 years. The film is based on a real-life person named Eugene Allen. Gaines is married to an alcoholic named Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), and has two boys named Louis (David Oyelowo) and Charlie. The story focuses mainly on Cecil and Louis and how they see things differently at a time when blacks were not considered equal to whites. Cecil believes it's best to not get involved and do his best to serve others. Louis goes off to college and becomes involved in the civil rights movement, eventually joining Martin Luther King Jr. and later the Black Panthers. Father and son do not see eye to eye on most matters and this leads to a lot of tension between the two. In the meantime, we see historical events unfold as president after president under Cecil's watch reflect their views on the world.

     I did a lot of reading about this film before and after my viewing and I've learned that much of what I saw is heavily edited for dramatic purposes. That's not at all unusual in movies, but I feel knowing some of what I do distracts from this movie a bit. Apparently a lot of the stuff inside the White House is very accurate, while much of what happens outside of the House is fictionalized or at least stretched quite a bit. What's odd, is that I find the stuff outside more interesting than the realistic stuff. I really like the performances from Whitaker and Oyelowo, as father and son and their conflicting views on the world. On the contrary, I found a lot of these stuff in the White House to be boring and unnecessary in many cases. The biggest miss for me is the selection in actors to play the various Presidents. There are some odd choices to say the least and I almost feel it was done purposely just so we can say, "HEY, look, that's xxxxxx as President xxxxx". This was a mistake as I found myself wondering who was going to be the next President more than I cared about what was going to happen next. The only one of scenes that really works for me is a scene with Lyndon Johnson in the bathroom that had me laughing pretty hard, but overall this idea was really a miss and hurts the film.

    All that being said, there is more good here than bad and I do give it a recommend. Whitaker is solid and many of the performing roles are good, if not spectacular. Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, and Cuba Gooding Jr. are almost always good on screen and that's no exception here. Oprah was getting some Best Supporting Actress love but after seeing this I think that's more for name recognition than anything else. She's really not a major character here, in my opinion at least. The movie has garnered a lot of comparisons to Forrest Gump in the way it focuses on a character over a period of time and how world events are seen through his eyes. I get the comparison but it really is different. I wanted a bit more and was somewhat let down, but still a decent watch. See it for Whitaker's performance if nothing else.

Mickster