Review: "Lee Daniels' The Butler"

What could have been a searing portrait of race relations in America seen through the eyes of a longtime White House butler instead becomes something like a cheap "Forrest Gump" knockoff.

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" is loosely based on the life of real White House butler Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents from 1952 to 1986. He was a witness to the tumultuous events of the mid-20th century, from school integration to the civil rights upheaval and Vietnam.

Director Daniels and screenwriter Danny Strong, who based the movie on a Washington Post article by Wil Haygood, use this as a basis for the completely fictionalized persona of Cecil Gaines, played by Forest Whitaker. While it starts out as a strong character portrait, it soon morphs into a hard-to-believe sequence of events in which either Cecil or his son is present, Zelig-like, at every single pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.

(And yes, the official title is "Lee Daniels' The Butler" -- the studio even sent out a stern reminder to that effect. Personally I think including the name of a director or author in the title makes them seem incredibly insecure.)

Even worse was the choice to cast well-known actors as the presidents Cecil served. Most of the time they bear not a whit of physical resemblance to the Oval Office occupant they're supposed to represent, and their attempts to mimic their speech or mannerisms fall short. Thus, Robin Williams' Eisenhower seems pinched and feisty, while John Cusack as Nixon (!!) has an itchy, sad quality.

Liev Schreiber does an amusing through pretty standard LBJ parody, and James Marsden adds a New England warp to his vowels as Kennedy. Alan Rickman's Reagan is probably the best of the lot, capturing the Gipper's unseen warmth. Casting Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan seems like some sort of cruel in-joke, especially when she invites Cecil and his wife to attend a state dinner as their guests just so (it's implied) there will be some diversity in the room.

The main problem with the churning of administrations is none of them hang around long enough to make any substantial impression, so these appearances end up falling just north of cameos. One part where Cecil attends to Jackie Kennedy after the assassination, her clothes still stained with JFK's blood, is a cheap and false moment.

The movie is at its best when it peers at the relationship between Cecil, his often-troublesome marriage to his boozy wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), his children and his co-workers. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the prankster head butler, and Lenny Kravitz is the more sedate wingman. The scenes where the White House staff hang out in the kitchen and back areas are lively and insightful, contributing to an Upstars/Downstairs vibe.

I enjoyed the section where Cecil talks about the two faces of the black house servant. You wear one face that is your own at home and among friends, but when white folks are around you must be non-threatening, indeed a non-entity -- "the room should feel empty when you are in it," Cecil learns.

He even manages to land his White House gig through strident obsequiousness. When a white manager suggests him to the black head butler, the latter takes affront -- and Cecil sides with him, saying he's right to want to hand-pick his own staff. Impressed with the way Cecil can disappear inside himself, he hires him on the spot, commenting that he'll "be a good house n*gger."

The part where Cecil tangles with his oldest son Louis (David Oyelowo) over his evolution into a civil rights activist grows increasingly far-fetched. Louis manages to be at the forefront of virtually every iconic scene from the equal rights movement -- getting beat up at a diner sit-in, having police dogs and firehouses trained on him, being nearly burned alive on a torched Freedom Rider bus, even seguing into the nascent Black Panther movement.

Curiously, the moment when the civil rights era arrives on Cecil's doorstep, the 1963 march on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, is not represented.

I think this ambitious film would have been better off as a rumination on the different paths African-Americans have taken toward equality and respect -- the way of the harsh revolutionary vs. the quiet insider. Instead, its story and emotions wander all over the map of the black experience, never finding a home.

Video review: "Precious"

Lately it seems major films are being pushed onto video in a slipshod manner. Extras are skimpy and unenlightening, as if the studio couldn't be bothered to take the time or spend the money.

(Yeah, I'm talking to you, "Where the Wild Things Are.")

So it's refreshing to see Best Picture Oscar nominee "Precious" given a top-notch release. It's got a solid commentary track and host of probing featurettes totaling nearly an hour. About the only knock is the lack of a digital copy.

Extras are identical for DVD and Blu-ray versions. In the commentary, director Lee Daniels talks openly about his own troubled youth and how it inspired him during the shooting.

Author Sapphire speaks about her experiences as an inner-city teacher, and how she was reluctant to let Hollywood film her book. She relented after seeing Daniels' "Monsters Ball."

The casting of novice Gabourey Sidibe is covered in detail, including footage from her audition. Sidibe is nothing like her character -- she's smart, outgoing and "talks like a white girl," Daniels says.

Daniels talks about de-glamorizing his cast, making nearly everyone work without makeup -- he even reveals he caught Mariah Carey trying to sneak in some blush between takes.

Oprah and Tyler Perry talk about their roles in "presenting" the film. Artistically, they had nothing to do with it. But after seeing it, they felt compelled to lend their names to get the Sundance favorite a major release.

Set in Harlem 1987, it's the first-person story of Claireece "Precious" Jones, an obese, illiterate 16-year-old who's pregnant with her second child. She's the victim of her mother, a serial abuser, played with terrifying rage by Mo'Nique, and was raped repeatedly by her father.

She's like a thousand others girls that people pass on the streets every day without seeing. Her entire life has taught her to feel worthless, like "ugly black grease."

But Precious is given a second chance when she's sent to an alternative school, where she finds a teacher and fellow female students who help her, for the first time in her life, to feel empowered. The vibrant fantasies that ping around her head start to translate into the journals she keeps for class.

"Precious" is a hard movie to watch. The brutality it depicts, of both a physical and psychological nature, are vile. The only thing worse would be failing to see it.

Movie: 3.5 stars
Extras: 3.5 stars

Review: "Precious"

Clareece "Precious" Jones is one of the greatest cinematic heroes of all time.
In the movie that bears her name, she may not seem like such an admirable figure at first blush. She's 16 years old and illiterate, pregnant with her second child, morbidly obese and barely skating by in school.

But her life is such a crucible of pain, a never-ceasing litany of abuse and degradation, that just surviving makes her admirable. Persevering, and refusing to give in, make her braver than a hundred action stars.

"Precious" is everything you've heard, and more.

Technically, the full title is "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." It's burdensome, but at least it will be interesting to see how they fit it on the title cards at next March's Academy Awards telecast, where this film is destined to be well-represented.

Gabourey Sidibe, in her first acting role, plays Precious. Outwardly, she is unexpressive, barely ever speaking and hardly allowing a flicker of emotion to visit upon her broad face. Inside her mind, though, is a flight of dreams and thoughts she uses to transport herself out of the hellhole that is her life -- fantasies about fame and fortune, and a "light-skinned boyfriend with good hair."

The source of her pain is her mother, who hurls epithets, blows and acidic vitriol at her only child. Played by Mo'Nique in a brave performance without an ounce of vanity, Precious' mother is a woman who lacks a life of her own -- she has no job, no romantic partner and no love to give. She feeds off Precious like a leech, forcing her to cook and clean while she sits all day in the house watching idiot TV.

Other women offer rays of hope into the girl's life, though. There is the social worker, played by Mariah Carey, who has the well-practiced indifference of a bureaucrat, but whose heart is touched by this poor, sad girl.

And there is Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), the teacher at the alternative school where Precious is placed after getting thrown out of her own institution. Ms. Rain is pretty, well-educated and represents a world that is alien to Precious. When she is invited to stay in her teacher's home to get away from her mother, Precious listens to Ms. Rain and her partner converse and thinks, "They talk like TV channels I don't watch."

I will not lie: "Precious" is a tough, tough film to watch. I've held off telling you some of the most terrible deeds portrayed in the movie, in hopes of not scaring you off. But you need to know.

Precious was raped by her own father, who sired both her expected baby and her first child -- who has Down's Syndrome and is referred to as "Mongo," short for mongoloid. Her mother did nothing to prevent this, and indeed her metastasizing hatred for Precious is based on her belief that her daughter stole her man away from her.
These acts are unspeakable. Even the bravest souls would want to wither and die from being touched by them.

But Precious keeps going. She has struggles, experiences setbacks and moments of despair. But with the help of Ms. Rain and a handful of fellow troubled students, Precious never quits.

This extraordinary film was directed by Lee Daniels from a screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher. It is a portrait of human ugliness that is nearly unbearable to watch. But it's a movie that cries out to be seen, wept over, discussed -- and cherished.

3.5 stars out of four