Lee Daniels' The Butler

Cast of Characters:

Cecil Gaines - Forest Whitaker

Gloria Gaines - Oprah Winfrey

Hattie Pearl - Mariah Carey

Vice President/President Richard Nixon - John Cusack

First Lady Nancy Reagan - Jane Fonda

Carter Wilson - Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Howard - Terrence Howard

James Holloway - Lenny Kravitz

President John F. Kennedy - James Marsden

Louis Gaines - David Oyelowo

Annabeth Westfall - Vanessa Redgrave

President Ronald Reagan - Alan Rickman

President Lyndon B. Johnson - Liev Schreiber

President Dwight D. Eisenhower - Robin Williams

Maynard - Clarence Williams III

Director - Lee Daniels

Screenplay - Danny Strong

Based on The Washington Post article "A Butler Well Served by This Election" by Wil Haygood

Rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking

      Academy Award winners Forest Whitaker, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Vanessa Redgrave and Robin Williams star alongside John Cusack, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber and Academy Award nominees Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard in Academy Award nominee Lee Daniels' film Lee Daniels' The Butler. Step aside White House Down. You're not the only film with a stacked cast now.

      Looks like he won't be getting a free car. Lee Daniels' The Butler is inspired by the real-life account of Eugene Allen, who worked at the White House for 34 years before retiring in 1986 as the head butler. Here, Allen is portrayed as Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), who as a child was raised on a cotton farm in Georgia. After his mother is pulled away to be raped, his father, trying to retaliate, is shot dead in front of him. Cecil is taken in by caretaker Annabeth Westfall (Vanessa Redgrave), who trains him to be a house slave.

      Now grown up, Cecil has been recommended for a job at the White House during the Eisenhower administration. Cecil, already not much of a political man himself, is told by the head of the butler staff that there is a zero tolerance policy on politics. When he is present in the office serving the president, he is to hear nothing and see nothing. Meanwhile, although he enjoys his job, his home life is rather different. His wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), even though she loves him, resents the fact that he works long hours and is hardly at home for her while she smokes and drinks throughout the day. His son Louis (David Oyelowo), fighting for change to the point of radical means, joins the Black Panther Party and denounces his father as just another "Uncle Tom" working in a subservient role. How dare he talk smack about Mister Tibbs too. He deserved every bit of that bitch slap he got from his mother.

      First off, before you think Lee Daniels is just another self-promoting whore, the reason his name comes before the title was because of a so called copyright dispute between The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros., which released a 1916 silent short film with the same name. Oh, yeah. People will definitely confuse the two if nothing's done. Anyway, Lee Daniels' The Butler features one of the most impressive casts in recent years and an Oscar worthy performance from Whitaker. It seems that for a while now, Whitaker has been stuck in "Straight to DVD" hell. That said, this is one of his best performances ever and there could be an argument to be made that it's just as good as his Oscar winning performance in The Last King of Scotland. Along with Whitaker, there are some impressive supporting turns from Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, John Cusack and Alan Rickman as Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford respectively. With playing any president there's always the chance you end up stumbling into caricature territory, but these five managed to pull off some genuine, albeit short, performances. Cuba Gooding, Jr. provides some comic relief in a role that reminded me when he's not starring in crap like Boat Trip and Daddy Day Camp he can actually act, and Oprah Winfrey takes time away from the usual "look at me" grandstanding she typically does to give a performance that I believe will earn her a much deserved Best Supporting Actress nomination. The story of how Gaines was, at times, like a fly on the wall observing each president handle a defining moment of their term is thoroughly fascinating. It's remarkable to think that perhaps a simple answer, while serving tea, in response to a question from one of the presidents could have swayed a decision of theirs. However, no story arc here is as powerful as the one we see in the strained relationship between Cecil and his oldest son Louis, both of whom feel the other is just getting in the way of their own respective plans.

      While the symbolism sometimes can get pretty obvious and the issues of each time period more or less get painted in broad strokes, it still doesn't take away the fact that this is a deeply moving and intriguing story about an ordinary man who was put into an extraordinary position. Plus, you can't blame the filmmakers too much. It's rather difficult to pull off a decades spanning story as perfectly as Forrest Gump did. The performances are exceptional and despite the heavy-handed story elements, director Daniels and writer Danny Strong throw in some much need comic relief (as mentioned with Cuba Gooding, Jr. above) to provide the viewer with some breathing room in between the more emotional moments. I give Lee Daniels' The Butler an A- (★★★½).