Review of The Butler (2013) by Nedryerson1 — 09 Jan 2014

The Butler is a very touching and easy to follow movie, because despite it treats a difficult topic like racism in the US, it is shown in a simple way, reduced to a family and the job of the father. The interesting thing is how similar is this film with the previous one of Lee Daniels, Precious.

In both movies the protagonist fights between three worlds, Precious was debating with her traumatic past, the inescapable present and the fantastic other reality where she is a star. Here Cecil lives between his job as a butler, where he only serves and never talk or react to the opinion of white people; his home life, where his wife feels abandoned and his child has revolutionary thoughts; and all the movements against racist practices that starts all over the country.

Another topic that deserves to be mentioned is how this picture evaluates two forms of changing the world and point out that if you want to accomplish something you must be open to other possibilities even if is necessary to go back on ones word and recognize an error.

Add to all these, a magnificent performances of Whitaker and Oprah, thrilling action sequences, elaborated script, a great direction; and you get an amazing film. But what it lacks in the story (in contrast to Precious) is more shocking reality and a best use of the illumination, music and camera.