"The Butler" Glosses Over the Complexity of its History but It's Still Entertaining

Star power can be intoxicating. It can salvage even the worst of films and make films that are kind of lousy tolerable or seem surficially good. For example, The Help is an exceptionally well acted film and its acting often distracts from its inability to tackle the race issues it claims to contend with. Director Lee Daniel's latest film The Butler is a film that rolls out the welcome wagon for star after star. It's a star-studded affair with Forest Whitaker front and center in the lead role as Cecil Gaines (based on the real life figure of Eugene Allen), giving a performance like he's out for an Oscar nod.

It's a powerfully acted work with actors even just in passing roles getting moments to really chew the scenery. Though it's well-acted, The Butlers' true story of an African-American White House butler who worked under every administration from Eisenhower to Ford is an ill-formed thing. Other than the titular performance and its passing interest in race issues, the film has hardly any through-line to connect one segment to the next. The film jumps from administration to administration with no real sense of direction and ends abruptly during the Reagan administration for reasons that though apparently based in reality seem to come out of nowhere in terms of the story. Yes the film is on one level a biopic but it attempts to use this empowering, at times fascinating, under-told story to give glimpses into the larger history of the time, specifically the evolving issues regarding race and race relations. In the process it loses a sense of what we're supposed to take away about Cecil, or even the history the film is in conversation about. The film's look at race issues is ultimately only skin deep.

The film is still  entertaining, balancing moments of tugging on your heart string and (more often then you might anticipate) hitting your funny bone. And even when the film gets too sentimental and maudlin the acting is typically strong enough to save the film. The film's approach to the portrayal of the various presidents is refreshing. The actors (Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schcreiber, John Cusack, Alan Rickman) don't fall into caricatures of the people they play but simply versions of the people (the make up and the voice work is never overdone).

A surprising amount of time is dedicated to Cecil's relationship with his son Louis (David Oyelowo -- which ends up forming the spine of the movie's story) who for much of his life he has an estranged, complicated relationship as Louis gets interested in civil rights protests and later the black power movement. Cecil is mostly true to his older generational roots and conflicted over his feelings about racial issues, and the film is at its best when it deals with this. Though it usually avoids complicating matters too much and sticks to sentimentality and familiar plot beats, it's still good comfort food.

Grade: B-