“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is often good, but it is also
often too simplistic. “The Butler” is based on a real person, Eugene Allen, a
black Southerner who served in the White House from 1952 – 1986, a stretch
marked by racial violence, assassinations and the Vietnam War. The
fictionalized Allen (he died in 2010), here named Cecil Gaines, is played with
vast inner strength by Forest Whitaker. The movie finds its strongest moments
in fiction. Cecil’s son, David (an invented character played by a simmering
David Oyelowo), is the opposite of his father. David is a passionate
participant in the Civil Rights era and his lunch-counter sit-ins, contrasted
with Cecil’s mannered table-setting for wealthy whites dining at the White House,
is jarring in its juxtaposition.
Director Lee Daniels also visually highlights Cecil’s two
Americas. The corridors of power are cool and clean while the humble homes of
Cecil and his co-workers (Lenny Kravitz and Cuba Gooding Jr.) have a dingy yellow
warmth. Oprah Winfrey, in her first major role in years as Gloria, Cecil’s
alcoholic wife, brings focus to a somewhat vague character. But the movie is
marred by too many simplistic notions. The American presidents are mostly op-ed
cartoons – John Cusak’s loutish Nixon, Live Schreiber’s hard-charging LBJ.
Whitaker maintains Cecil’s dignity against a series of performances that range
from bland (James Marsden’s JFK) to cartoonish (Robin Williams’ Eisenhower).
And too much of “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” seems to have For Your Consideration slapped all over it. If it does elicit Oscar
nominations, the tribute will be for the subject rather than the treatment of
that subject. 8/22/13
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