My Review: The Butler (8/10)

"Everything you are and everything you have, is because of that butler."

Lee Daniels' The Butler is an ambitious film that has Oscar bait written all over of it. It may have an uneven and overlong narrative, but the impressive cast makes up for it. The film covers an extended period of time where political and racial history was being made in the United States, but it does so in a very quick and safe way. That is where some of the comparisons with Forrest Gump come in, but this film takes itself more seriously. I wasn't a fan of Lee's previous film, The Paperboy, but Precious was a solid movie. The Butler is not as good as Precious, but it's still a solid effort and an engaging film with some great performances. We get to see through the eyes of the butler how each of the historical events presented in the film affected his life and society as a whole. It can be manipulative and melodramatic at times, but the film does work and it's emotionally affecting. Many of the characters come in and out of the film so quickly that we barely have time to get to know them. The only three characters in this film that get some depth are the butler, his wife, and oldest son. That was enough to engage the audience and keep them hooked to the story despite the pacing issues. 

The screenplay was written by Danny Strong inspired by an article written by Wil Haygood entitled "A Butler Well Served by This Election." The film is very loosely based on a true story, but several liberties were taken for dramatic effect. It centers on the life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) who grew up in the south as a domestic servant in the 20's. He later decides to continue his life on his own and becomes a hotel valet under the guidance of Maynard (Clarence Williams III) who teaches him everything he needs to know about becoming a servant. He does his work so well that eventually he's called to serve at the White House during the 50's. Beginning his service during President Dwight Eisenhower's (Robin Williams) term he observes the radical changes from the inside for decades serving seven more presidents in the process. His service eventually affects his family life including his relationship with his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) who has a drinking problem and with his oldest son Louis (David Oyelowo) who becomes involved in the Civil Rights movement. The Butler allows us to experience the changes in America during the 20th century through his eyes and the effect it had on his family.

Despite being manipulative and playing it pretty safe, what The Butler does best is focusing on the duality of its main character and the inner struggle he must face. That is the key element in this film and what works best because there are several flaws with the pacing considering its ambition to cover such an extensive period of time. Cecil learns at a very young age that he must remain invisible and thus learns how to control his emotions and keep to himself. That is why he becomes such an efficient servant, but on the inside he struggles with the injustice despite remaining passive. His son, is the opposite, and that is where the duality is expressed as he represents everything his father isn't. The Butler works best when it centers around this conflict between father and son, and the conflict between the two differing ideologies. It was interesting to see this dynamic in play and it worked much better than the extensive and broad biopic that it was trying to be. The impressive cast also lifts this film and makes it seem much better than it really is. David Oyelowo is probably the best here, although Whitaker is receiving a lot of credit for his restrained performance as well. It was good to see him sharing a short scene with Robin Williams (since I was a huge fan of their 80's film Good Morning Vietnam, it had a nostalgic effect on me). The Butler isn't a groundbreaking film and as a period film it doesn't impress much, but it gets credit for trying to explore the duality in The Butler and his relationships.

My Review: The Paperboy (3/10)

¨He never did get over his first true love.¨

The Paperboy is an early contender for worse film of the year. This pulpy film noir thriller is so messy that it´s hard to make sense of everything that is going on. The story is just horrible with characters that are too hard to identify with. I couldn’t care less for what was going to happen to them because they were all dislikeable characters, and I really couldn’t figure out why they wanted to help each other out or why they were even together in the first place. The Paperboy tries too hard to mix everything together: a pulpy film noir, with some racial drama, a detective story (that never even solves anything), several anti-romances, and some unfunny comedy. This is just one of those trashy films that succeed in making you feel dirty, but you don’t get anything of real value out of it. I also hated the way that the film was narrated in some scenes trying to explain everything to the viewer like if we were stupid and needed everything pointed out at us (yes, we can all understand that Efron´s character was in love with Nicole Kidman because of his abandonment issues with his mother, there was no need to tell us that through voice over). The other problem I had was that the film tried too hard to shock us through several unpleasant scenes, like the close up of the gator being gutted, and these gross out scenes didn’t really connect with the movie. That is the reason why I felt this film wasn´t cohesive and was too messy. It is a shame because I loved Lee Daniels´s previous film Precious, but this is a huge step backwards from that movie.

  

The film was based on Peter Dexter´s novel of the same name and it takes place in South Florida during the late 60´s. The story centers around the life of a reporter named Ward (Matthew McConaughey) who decides to return to his hometown to investigate a case about an inmate on death row. Ward is trying to catch a big break on this story involving the murder of a local police officer and the conviction of the supposed murderer, Hilary Van Wetter (John Cusack). Apparently there were some irregularities in the trial and Ward has decided to investigate the case with his partner, Yardley (David Oyelowo). They heard about the story through Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) who happens to be sort of a death row groupie, who corresponds with these men through letters. She falls in love with Hilary and believes he is innocent, so she contacts Ward and Yardley and convinces them to chase this career making story. Together they work on the case in Ward´s father´s home where his younger brother, Jack (Zac Efron), still lives. Jack becomes the driver for the group taking them to the different locations they are investigating and immediately falls in love with Charlotte despite knowing she´s attracted to the psychotic Hilary. The story is narrated by the house maid, Anita (Macy Gray).

The film does succeed in bringing the hot and steamy Florida weather on the screen and only watching the characters move make us feel hot and sweaty as well. This trashy film reminds us of some early 70´s film noir movies with Nicole Kidman playing this sort of modern femme fatale character. Her gritty performance stands in deep contrast to Efron´s sweet innocence. I had no problem with the cast. I thought they all gave strong performances, especially Nicole Kidman and John Cusack as these two sort of psychotic characters. I had never seen these actors in a role like this before. My major problem with the film was the messy story which ended up wandering all over the place and getting lost in the mix of everything. It is no wonder this film ended up getting booed at Cannes because it does fail to connect the major plot points. It was just a little too pulpy and steamy for my taste and it didn’t work at all because I really disliked all these characters.  

     

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My Review: Precious (8/10)

¨Some folks has a lot of things around them that shines for other peoples. I think that maybe some of them was in tunnels. And in that tunnel, the only light they had, was inside of them. And then long after they escape that tunnel, they still be shining for everybody else. ¨

(8/10) Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (yes that is the original title of the film, but we will just abbreviate it to Precious) is a very powerful movie that serves as a social critique on child abuse. This is a very real and raw movie that touches very difficult subject matters that most Hollywood producers would like to stay away from. It shows us another side of life that sometimes we are indifferent towards: those neglected and abused children that only receive hate and abuse from the people that are supposed to care the most for them. The images are really hard to watch and the language is very dirty because the movie deals with rape and verbal abuse. Director and producer, Lee Daniels, recognized he had a very rough childhood himself and received a lot of abuse from his father, so this movie was very personal for him and that is what perhaps gives this a more realistic take on the film. Lee Daniels had already produced other challenging movies such as Monster´s Ball and The Woodsman which both received critical acclaim, although his directorial debut with Shadowboxer didn`t meet the same praise. Geoffrey Fletcher adapted the screenplay after having some success with several short films like the Magic Marker. I really enjoyed this film and it truly opened my eyes on the subject matter. Sometimes we tend to ignore these issues and look the other way so many of the scenes in the movie were really difficult to watch.

The movie begins by introducing us to sixteen year old Precious (played by the newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) who daydreams in school about becoming a famous star and having a hot boyfriend, but the truth of the matter is that she is a very shy, quiet, and overweight girl who sits in the back of the classroom and keeps to herself. She doesn´t know how to read or write, but she is actually quite good at math. The kids at school and in the neighborhood make fun of her and she is constantly teased. When Precious gets home things don`t get better for her since her father sexually abuses her, and her mother Mary (played by Mo`Nique) verbally abuses her as well. Precious already has a two year old daughter named Mongol (short for Mongolic because she has Down syndrome) as a product from the sexual abuse she receives from her father and is pregnant with her second child. Precious has only experienced hurt and pain during her entire life due to the abuse, but someone from school takes an interest for her and convinces her to go to a special school because she shows progress in math. Precious decides to go against her mother`s will. Mary wants her daughter to stay in school for the sole purpose of receiving financial aid since that is her only income because she is too lazy to go find a job. In the meantime at her new school Precious meets Ms. Rain (played by the beautiful Paula Patton (from Mirrors and Déjà Vu) who takes a special interest in her and finally begins to receive something she has never received before, someone that cares for her. One step at a time, Precious begins to learn how to read and write and at the same time finds strength to face her mother.

At first, I found the first few scenes very difficult to watch and didn`t think I would enjoy the movie, but as the movie progressed I really was captivated by the story. I think that by the time Precious gets to the new school and is introduced to her classmates the movie picks up because it mixes humor with drama and it helped the movie tone down a little. Before that point the movie just made you feel depressed and bad for what Precious had to go through. This was Sidibe`s first film and she was great. Her Oscar nomination for best actress was well deserved although I don`t think she will win it. The real star of this film is Mo`Nique, who is absolutely perfect in her role as Mary. She was a true villain every time she was on screen because you really feared for Precious`s life when she was alone with her. Her nomination for best supporting actress was well deserved as well and she is the favorite to win it. Mariah Carey also had a small role as the social worker handling Precious`s case and she also nailed her role. The entire cast was really good and even Lenny Kravitz was believable in his role as a male nurse. What I liked the most about this film is that it didn`t fully rely on the abuse, but it also showed another side of humanity. Ms. Rain really takes an interest in Precious`s life and shows her that there is some good in this world. This might not be a film for everyone, but I absolutely recommend it. I certainly will not complain about my life after seeing everything that Precious had to go through. This film is also nominated for best picture and it probably has an outside chance as Avatar or The Hurt Locker are the heavy favorites. Director Lee Daniels is the first African American director to have his or her film nominated for best picture.