The Butler (Lee Daniels' The Butler - 2013)

Powerful, moving, beautiful, with an all star cast and high production values, this story of the White House butler who served in eight administrations and the changes in racism over those decades is well worth seeing. Forest Whitaker (last blogged in Where the Wild Things Are) shines as the title character Cecil Gaines. Oprah Winfrey (before her 25 years as a talk show host she was Oscar-nominated for her first acting role ever in The Color Purple (1985)) is terrific as Cecil's wife Gloria. Rumor has it that director Daniels required her to take some acting classes and it shows on screen. Also burning up the celluloid is David Oyelowo (supporting roles in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Paperboy, and Lincoln) as Gloria and Cecil's fictionalized elder son Louis (even at 37, Oyelowo--oh-ye-LOW-oh--is so baby-faced and slope-shouldered he plays Louis from a teenager on up). In the White House Robin Williams plays Dwight Eisenhower, James Marsden is John Kennedy, Minka Kelly is Jacqueline Kennedy, Liev Schreiber is Lyndon Johnson, John Cusack has Nixon's voice down pat, Alan Rickman is Ronald Reagan, and Jane Fonda is Nancy Reagan. Then Yaya Alafia (she just changed her name from Yaya DaCosta, which she used when playing Mark Ruffalo's luscious girlfriend in The Kids Are All Right) is powerful as Louis' girlfriend Carol. Mention must be made of Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, Vanessa Redgrave, and Clarence Williams III.

Director Daniel's (most recently directed The Paperboy) name is in the title not due to narcissism but because Warner Brothers released a short film in 1916 called The Butler and apparently thought people would be confused. They sued and won. Ridiculous. And ironic because Daniels' Oscar-nominated Precious also had a name change--it was adapted from a novel called Push, but there was another movie out that year called Push so the name was changed to that of the protagonist Precious.

The real White House Butler was named Eugene Allen and Washington Post writer Wil Haygood profiled him (here's the full article) a few days after President Obama was elected in 2008. Danny Strong (originally an actor, he wrote Recount (2008) and Game Change (2012) for HBO and I forgot to watch them but they were much lauded) adapted the article, changing Allen's name and some details, but, like the article, the movie has as much history of American racism as there is history of the butler.

The makeup and wigs should get an Oscar nomination. The transformations of the actors into presidents is outstanding, as are the aging processes of the others. And we have a new winner of the Producers Plethora Prize with 39! To count them check out the list on imdb and take note of the makeup/hair department.

The soundtrack is by Rodrigo Leão (you can preview it on amazon--it's scheduled for release on Tuesday--and it's good) but what you'll remember are the songs. 21 are listed here.

My friends and fans know I like to cry in movies. I needed my hanky on many occasions at the sold-out preview last night. The rest of the audience clapped and cheered. Jack and I liked it a lot, and he thought it would make a good teaching tool for history classes. Rottentomatoes' audiences agree with our group, scoring it at 94% to critics' 74 (expect those numbers to change once the movie goes into its wide release in a few hours). After seeing the movie read this spoiler-rich rave review which contains my favorite slam of The Paperboy: "a repulsive miscalculation." That being said, do see The Butler before the Oscars.