Review: THE BUTLER

LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER  (DRAMA/BIOPIC)
Three Stars out of Four
Directed by Lee Daniels
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, John Cusack, Liev Schreiber, James Marsden, Robin Williams, Minka Kelly, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Alex Pettyfer
PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking.
Verdict:  Given the perils of so-called "important film"-making, it's a testament to the talent and/or luck involved that THE BUTLER isn't a wreck, and could be hailed alone for being as much as a "good" movie.  But for as important as themes of the film are, a fact of which the filmmakers are enormously aware, it's a missed opportunity that THE BUTLER is no more than merely good.  The cast is one of the most impressive ensembles ever put together for a film and Daniels deserves huge commendations for facing the ugly realities of the Jim Crow South and Civil Rights Era tensions head on, but the enormous ambitions and perilously difficult "story of a life" material are almost too much to be managed here.
YOU MAY LIKE LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER IF YOU LIKED:
FORREST GUMP (1994)
JFK (1991)
PRECIOUS (BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE) (2009)
THE GREAT DEBATERS (2007)
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)

LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER (previously titled THE BUTLER, before another studio's claim on the title for a little-known 1916 film resulted in the Weinstein Company adding their director's name to the title) deals with some of the most ambitious and precarious topics known to the film industry.  It aims to tell the story of a man's life, beginning with his childhood and concluding in his old age, as he witnesses history in the making, from the violence and oppression of the Jim Crow South, through the breaking point tension of the Civil Rights Era, and right up to as far as the 2008 presidential election.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences loves this stuff (just ask FORREST GUMP), but it's also a huge risk that invites cynicism as nostalgia, manipulative sentimentality and self-importance are naturally-occurring common factors to such material.  THE BUTLER stumbles into these pitfalls more than just a few times throughout its 132 minutes, and while it falls well short of the greatness it aspires to and ought to be, it is a remarkable feat alone that it manages to at least be a "good film," if nothing more.
THE BUTLER is inspired by the true life story of Eugene Allen, an African-American butler who served at the White House for 34 years, through eight presidential administrations, and retired in 1986 as the head butler.  In the script, written by Danny Strong (known for the HBO political drama, GAME CHANGE), Eugene Allen is changed to Cecil Gaines (played as an adult by Forest Whitaker), who grows up on a Georgia plantation in the 1920s, working in the cotton fields with his parents, when one day, the plantation master drags Cecil's mother (Mariah Carey) into the barn and rapes her.  When Cecil's father tries to protest, he's shot through the head, and Cecil's traumatized mother never speaks again.  All but parent-less,

Whitaker and Oprah looking as dramatic as possible

Cecil is from then on raised as a "house-n*****," learning to serve the household silently and invisibly until he leaves as a teenager and is hired as a servant in a bakery, where he further refines his trade under the tutelage of the master servant.  As an adult, Cecil becomes a servant in an upper-class club, from which he is recommended by an Eisnehower Administration member to the White House service staff.
As a butler, Cecil serves elegantly under eight presidents played by an all-star set of actors including Robin Williams (yes, the Robin Williams) as Eisenhower, James Marsden as Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Johnson, John Cusack as Nixon and Alan Rickman as Reagan; the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter years are brushed over with archival footage montages.  In his private life, Cecil struggles to balance his devotion to his work and to his wife, Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), while periodically clashing with his son, Louis (David Oyelowo), over the years as Louis rides the waves of the Civil Right Movement and Cecil keeps a low political profile for his work (as his superior informs him, "There is no tolerance for politics in the White House.").

Comedy legend Robin Williams as Pres. Eisenhower, our funniest president.

A particular issue for THE BUTLER, which strains its credibility, is the "political landmarking," as Cecil's freedom-fighter son is conveniently present most of the major Civil Rights Era events, from youth sit-ins, to the Freedom Riders to the Black Panthers, as if the participating groups were largely made up of the same people going from place to place.  While FORREST GUMP can get away with that kind of thing thanks to a whimsical demeanor, a necessarily more-grounded film like THE BUTLER might have done better to use other methods of involving those events, while directly placing its characters in fewer of them.
In the last scenes, in which the presidential election of Barack Obama becomes very prominent, the film almost begins to smack of being a full-blown campaign commercial, were it not for Obama already having won his second and final term (that is until he eradicates the two-term limit, declares himself Supreme Overlord and abolishes religion; don't laugh, it's true!), although this is almost excusable, given that the official source material that inspired the script was an article that coincided with the 2008 election.
The film's cast is one of the most impressive ever assembled, with even some of the very minor characters being played by big-name stars, i.e. Mariah Carey as Cecil's mother who has less than a minute of screen-time and perhaps a single line at most, or MAGIC MIKE-hunk Alex Pettyfer, who briefly appears as the plantation owner who rapes Cecil's mother before shooting Cecil's father.  This is occasionally to the film's disadvantage though, when recognizable faces show up with facial prosthetics and imitating historical figures, especially Cusack as Nixon, who plays the part blustery enough, but looks like Cusack wearing a false nose.  Rickman, the excellent English actor known for playing Hans Gruber in DIE HARD and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, looks the part of Ronald Reagan surprisingly well though, while Robin Williams gets by fine as Eisenhower, by doing his usual dramatic schtick of playing toned down and

Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda as the Reagans

soft-spoken.
One of the worst things a Civil Rights drama can do is to gloss over the violence, like the lukewarm but popular 2011 film, THE HELP.  It downplays the threat and sacrifice that was there and dishonors those who fought for their rights as free people, and in a potentially very saccharine and sentimental drama like THE BUTLER, it could be downright fatal.  Lee Daniels does not avoid the issue at all though, as he forces us to flinch at the terror that really was, which boosts the film by being honest and true to its material, while also balancing out the more syrupy moments.  Despite the PG-13 rating, some scenes of the Jim Crow South and civil protest backlash are fairly graphic and not for the weak of constitution, so there's your warning.
Finally, although the subject matter and many of the people involved should make evident, this is a rather liberal film.  I'm sorry conservatives, but the Civil Rights Era, and civil rights in general, have just never really been your strong suit, so the material is naturally more of a liberal persuasion, but add on top of all that that this is a film that stars and is co-produced Oprah (along with 40 other producers and executive producers!), and stars Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan and John Cusack as Richard Nixon, it should be super obvious that this movie about politics has a liberal opinion.  Apparently not though, as all the whispering and muttering shot off in the central Utah screening I was at, as Reagan refused to impose sanctions on South Africa for Apartheid and Cecil cried as the television announced Barack Obama's election.
We'll see what Oscar thinks next January, but I suspect they'll look for the best way to honor it without too prominently praising the Oscar-bait.  Either way, it's a pretty good film, that simply isn't as important as it clearly knows it should be when it dedicates itself to those who fought for their human rights.