Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Butler
2013
**½
Director: Lee Daniels
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams, Clarence Williams III

Cecil Gaines is a mild-mannered black man who overcomes his tragic upbringing to build a long and successful career as a White House butler under seven different Presidents. While Cecil humbly accepts his place in a society run by white men, his eldest son Louis becomes a devout civil rights activist. Danny Strong's screenplay is loosely based on the true story of Eugene Allen, but the film's long series of chronological coincidences feel extremely scripted. Like Forrest Gump, Cecil stands passively in the Oval Office whenever history is being made, and his son's passage from peaceful protests to violent resistance plays out like the A to Z of the 1960's civil rights movement. Predictably, JFK is a saint and Nixon is a sweaty slimeball. However, it's not all bad. The drama does provide an interesting history lecture and its central relationship between Cecil and his wife Gloria is movingly portrayed and played by Whitaker and Winfrey.