Lee Daniel's The Butler
2/4
Starring: Forest Whitaker, David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Rated PG-13 for Some Violence and Disturbing Images, Language, Sexual Material, Thematic Elements and Smoking
"Lee Daniel's The Butler" (the director's name was added after a lawsuit filed by Warner Brothers) suffers from too much ambition. There's simply too much material to cover in a hair over two hours. While there are instances where a movie of a decent length has encapsulated a large amount of time and characters ("Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are two, although they were both around 2.5 hours as opposed to 2 hours 10 minutes here), they're the exceptions to the rule. It has the cast, but the script is weak.
Cecil Gaines (Whitaker) grew up on a cotton plantation. After his dad was murdered on the job by one of the owners there (a stiff Alex Pettyfer), one of the older women on the plantation (Vanessa Redgrave) makes him a butler. By keeping his head down and doing what is required of him, he acquires a reputation that leads him to the White House, where he serves a number of Presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower (Robin Williams) to Ronald Regan (Alan Rickman). While his faith in change for blacks lies in the Presidents, his son Louis (Oyelowo) takes an increasingly radical position.
We've seen this movie before. So many times that it has become a formula. An everyman through sheer luck and being in the right place at the right time influences history. It's "Forrest Gump" meets "The Remains of the Day." It's a traditional biopic that the Weinsteins were hoping had Oscar potential (the August release date makes it clear that they realized it wasn't going to happen). Unfortunately, there is so much going on and so many characters that it's impossible to really feel for any of them.
The actors pick up the slack, but there's only so much they can do. Forest Whitaker, after giving a lousy performance in "The Last Stand," returns to form as a performer capable of brilliant performances. Cecil is wise, but knows that speaking out to people above him is a bad idea. He has to put his faith in people. His son, however, because of his experiences and youthful idealism, believes that action is the only way to gain civil rights. The conflict between these two is meant to be the crux of the film, but it's undeveloped and in place of depth, we have a game of "spot the star" and "spot the historical event." All the famous events and presidents are included (some of who have almost nothing to do). Robin Williams is misused as Eisenhower, James Marsden is a dead ringer for JFK, Liev Schrieber is a woeful stand-in for Lyndon B. Johnson, and Alan Rickman is okay as Ronald Regan.
This is Lee Daniels' next film after the weakly recieved "The Paperboy" starring Zac Efron. Daniels became a known name after the emotional powerhouse called "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" that was released in 2009. Daniels does as good of a job as anyone could with the material he has. The film isn't bad; it's watchable and rarely uninteresting. But it could have been so much more.
Starring: Forest Whitaker, David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Rated PG-13 for Some Violence and Disturbing Images, Language, Sexual Material, Thematic Elements and Smoking
"Lee Daniel's The Butler" (the director's name was added after a lawsuit filed by Warner Brothers) suffers from too much ambition. There's simply too much material to cover in a hair over two hours. While there are instances where a movie of a decent length has encapsulated a large amount of time and characters ("Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are two, although they were both around 2.5 hours as opposed to 2 hours 10 minutes here), they're the exceptions to the rule. It has the cast, but the script is weak.
Cecil Gaines (Whitaker) grew up on a cotton plantation. After his dad was murdered on the job by one of the owners there (a stiff Alex Pettyfer), one of the older women on the plantation (Vanessa Redgrave) makes him a butler. By keeping his head down and doing what is required of him, he acquires a reputation that leads him to the White House, where he serves a number of Presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower (Robin Williams) to Ronald Regan (Alan Rickman). While his faith in change for blacks lies in the Presidents, his son Louis (Oyelowo) takes an increasingly radical position.
We've seen this movie before. So many times that it has become a formula. An everyman through sheer luck and being in the right place at the right time influences history. It's "Forrest Gump" meets "The Remains of the Day." It's a traditional biopic that the Weinsteins were hoping had Oscar potential (the August release date makes it clear that they realized it wasn't going to happen). Unfortunately, there is so much going on and so many characters that it's impossible to really feel for any of them.
The actors pick up the slack, but there's only so much they can do. Forest Whitaker, after giving a lousy performance in "The Last Stand," returns to form as a performer capable of brilliant performances. Cecil is wise, but knows that speaking out to people above him is a bad idea. He has to put his faith in people. His son, however, because of his experiences and youthful idealism, believes that action is the only way to gain civil rights. The conflict between these two is meant to be the crux of the film, but it's undeveloped and in place of depth, we have a game of "spot the star" and "spot the historical event." All the famous events and presidents are included (some of who have almost nothing to do). Robin Williams is misused as Eisenhower, James Marsden is a dead ringer for JFK, Liev Schrieber is a woeful stand-in for Lyndon B. Johnson, and Alan Rickman is okay as Ronald Regan.
This is Lee Daniels' next film after the weakly recieved "The Paperboy" starring Zac Efron. Daniels became a known name after the emotional powerhouse called "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" that was released in 2009. Daniels does as good of a job as anyone could with the material he has. The film isn't bad; it's watchable and rarely uninteresting. But it could have been so much more.
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