Movie Review: Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler is the latest film by the director who brought us Monster Ball and Precious. The film was thrust into the public sphere with controversy already surrounding it. The title, previously OK'd, was forced to be retitled because of a legal battle between Harvey Weinstein and Warner Bros (you can read all about the battle here).

The film chronicles the life of Cecil Gaines, a butler who served in the white house from the Eisenhower administration until the Reagan years. Forrest Whitaker plays the role of the butler and attacks it with a real delicateness that frames the tone of the film. The film is packed with actors that play a series of rotating presidents that Cecil waits on through the course of the film. Robin Williams plays Eisenhower, James Marsdens plays JFK, Liev Shrive plays LBJ, John Cusack plays Nixon and an Americanized Alan Rickman plays Ronald Reagan (with Jane Fonda playing his Nancy). The film is dotted with familiar faces including Mariah Carey, Alex Pettyfer, Lenny Kravitz and Cuba Gooding Jr. to name a few. At one point, it almost becomes more entertaining to try and guess who will come on screen next than watching the actual film. Oh, and Oprah is in it too.

However, Daniels provides a good film. It certainly doesn't pack the same punch that Precious did but it is a much more widely appealing film. The film deals with very heavy subject matter and it's hard to explore Cecil's micro story while giving the same priority to the macro story of the civil rights movement. Daniels does try and shift between these two frames throughout the film and it does work to some extent but does not nearly do justice to the overall story of the civil rights struggle. Daniels has gotten some flack about the fictionalization of these events. He works certain historical situations to allow them to flow with Cecil's journey. Furthermore, the actual figure "Cecil" did not exist but a similar figure did but the events of his life don't match up with those displayed in the film. But does this really matter? At the end of the day we want to watch a good film and filmmakers' jobs are to manipulate stories to make them engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking. I think Daniels accomplished this while stumbling a few times along the way with an ambitious scope.

Whitaker clearly carries this film and his performance is commendable. I wouldn't be surprised if he is acknowledged by an Oscar nod but I'd be surprised if the film is.