"The Butler" is probably the first movie of the summer that your mom, grandmother and aunt want to see, more or less because Oprah is in it. "The Butler" tells the true story of Cecil Gaines, played by Ridgemont High's own Forest Whitaker. Mr. Gaines was a butler in the white house for 8 Presidents, the movie is basically history through his eyes during the height of the Civil Rights movement while he serves the people who will shape it. Basically "The Butler" is "Forrest Gump", if Forrest Gump was a butler. The movie is riveting in parts however it does commit the mortal movie sin of trying way way too hard to become a prestige picture. The performances, especially from Oprah and Forest Whitaker are great and the overall story and execution is worthy.
Usually a movie with the cast predominantly made up of African Americans has the words "Tyler Perry's" in the title, its unfortunate and unnecessary but the majority of films made or starring African Americans are crap. Even when Hollywood deems a movie with this subject matter marketable it either comes off as a movie about kindly white people helping blacks in need (The Help) or just comes off as blatantly racist or stereotypical (Precious). The director of "The Butler" is Lee Daniels who also directed "Precious", himself an African American and while "The Butler" is a lot more accessible to the mainstream than "Precious" was the fact that this movie has Academy Award consideration written all over it the overall message of it sometimes gets lost.
Cecil Gaines was raised on a cotton farm in the south and after the death of his father by one of the farm owners family members Cecil is brought into the house, again by a kindly white woman (Vanessa Redgrave) and is taught how to serve the family and houseguests thus is his destiny to become a butler. Cecil as a grown man finds himself working in a hotel and through the recommendation of one of his regulars gets a job at the white house starting off with the Eisenhower administration. All of the Presidents are played by name actors: Robin Williams and Dwight Eisenhower, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon Johnson, John Cusack as Richard Nixon and Alan Rickman as Ronald Regan. The other presidents that he served during his tenure are left out, either due to running time or they couldn't find any name actors that resemble them. Cusack as Nixon for me was the only one that really stood out and the choice to have name actors in these small, almost niche roles comes off more as stunt casting than anything as their screen time is minimal at best.
When on the clock Gaines is there solely to serve, if you believe the movie he was there to comfort Jackie Kennedy after JFK was assassinated and help Lyndon Johnson with his apparent constipation problem with prune juice always readily available. Where "The Butler" succeeds are the scenes featuring Gaines's family including his wife played in a great turn by Oprah Winfrey and his battle with his son (David Oyelowo) who is at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and battles with his father on this subject matter. Had the movie focused more on this element and less on the showcase of Presidents the movie's overall message would be more clear rather than a cinematic Cliff's note of history through the turbulent 60's, 70's and early 80's.
Despite the criticism overall "The Butler" is a worthy movie and probably an important one for those not familiar with the time period on which is focused here. Though not as enthralling as his turn in "The Last King of Scotland" which got him an Oscar statue Whitaker is almost assured of a nomination for his work here as well as Oprah for best supporting actress as she certainly is not playing "Oprah" playing a character.
