As someone said to me before the screening, The Butler sounds like a parody of Oscar bait - something from Naked 33 1/3. While that is true - it does seems to exist solely for the purposes of cashing in on the success of last year's The Help - the solid performances keep its head above water.
Forest Whittaker plays Cecil Gaines, a cotton picker who moves to 1957 Washington to land a job as a waiter in a hotel. It's here that he impresses the White House staff and is duly employed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Cecil serves first Eisenhower (a quiet Robin Williams), then JFK (a slick James Marsden), LBJ (a barking Liev Shreiber), Nixon (a slimy John Cusack), and Reagan (an uptight Alan Rickman). Meanwhile, the time spent at the White House plays havoc with his marriage to Gloria (Winfrey), who seeks solace first in the drinks cabinet and then the arms of neighbour Howard (Terrence Howard).
The Butler, or Lee Daniel's The Butler (the director's name before the title is odd since Danny Strong adapted the from Will Haygood's Washington Post article), tries to do too much in encompassing thirty odd years at the White House. The story flies by far too quickly, barely touching on something before whizzing on. The structure is so episodic in nature it's easy to predict where the ads will be placed in future TV airings.
There's just too much to do in two hours. On top of the above synopsis, there is also Cecil's son Louis's (David Oyelowo) involvement in the Civil Rights movement, which rubs up his apolitical father the wrong way, but has some influence later when Cecil asks the White House that the black staff be paid the same as the white. There's also a hint that while the campaign for civil rights continues, women remain subservient to men - Howard ordering his wife to get him another beer - but this isn't given the room to be explored further. No time, see.
So thanks then to the sterling performances to keep The Butler watchable. Whittaker, as solid as ever, is matched by a wonderful Winfrey, her first role in fifteen years. Cuba Gooding Jnr is as bouncy as usual and, I'll only say this once, there isn't enough Mariah Carey in this movie. Daniels showed she could act in Precious and her two brief scenes here prove the lady can act.
A miniseries rather than a movie would have suited the material better though.