Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Lee Daniels, Hopscotch Films, M, 132 Minutes.
This thoroughly absorbing drama from ‘Precious’ director Lee Daniels focuses on the incredible life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker – ‘Arrival’) an African-American butler who served seven American Presidents during his tenure at the White House over the years from 1957-1986.
In actual fact the movie is based on the real-life story of former White House butler Eugene Allen which first featured in a Washington Post article that inspired Wil Haygood’s book The Butler-A Witness to History.
The story starts in the 1920s with a young Cecil Gaines witnessing the tragic death of his father at the hands of his employer in the South’s cotton fields.
After his father’s passing it is left to the plantation’s matriarch Annabeth (legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave) to train Cecil as a house servant enabling him to find work in a hotel before moving to an elite establishment in Washington.
This eventually sees Gaines getting appointed as the first African-American White House butler which provides a comfortable lifestyle for himself, his wife Gloria (TV icon Oprah Winfrey) including sons Louis (David Oyelowo – ‘Selma’) and Charlie (Elijah Kelley – ‘Red Tails’).
Then following each election Gaines becomes the butler to each successive President with cameo appearances provided by Robin Williams (Eisenhower), James Marsden (Kennedy), Live Schreiber (Johnson) John Cusack (Nixon), Gerald Ford (himself), Jimmy Carter (himself) and Alan Rickman (Reagan).
Besides bearing witness to each presidential administration Daniels provides some intriguing insights into the various stages of the dramatic civil rights’ struggles in particular those involving Gaines’ son Louis in the movement led by Martin Luther King (Nelsen Ellis).
Apart from the miscasting of certain characters a major highlight is the powerful performance of both Whitaker and Winfrey complemented by an impressive supporting cast comprising Mariah Carey, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Terrence Howard, and Lenny Kravitz.
‘The Butler’ is an enjoyable and inspirational epic drama that provides on the one hand a biopic of a resilient African-American who rises to one of the highest posts in the White House, on the other hand it vividly dramatizes the historical journey through one of the most momentous political periods in US history seen through the eyes of a presidential butler (and father)-making this movie one not to be missed.
The Butler is to be televised on Channel 7flix at 8.30pm on Friday 6 November
Vic’s Verdict: 4 Stars
