Movie Reviews by Bob Racine
Motion picture history is
replete with examples of great acting that has made otherwise only medium level
screenplays memorable and uniquely enjoyable.
The portrayals transcend the material; the charisma of the players
elevates it to a level of emotional clout that is not especially inherent in
the writing itself. In Woody Allen’s
latest dramedy, “Blue Jasmine,” Cate Blanchett does a sensational job of
breathing life into a very reprehensible character – a wealthy, spoiled,
dishonest, manipulative lush, whom we are expected to find amusing. I found her and her devices disgusting. Aside from her antics, the film has nothing
more to recommend it. Allen (of whom I
am a longtime fan), for my money, has many times before done far better,
whatever my fellow critics and the Academy of Motion Pictures have chosen to
say. The action is so contrived and
cartoonish, and the general dialogue so full of clichés that do not serve the
quality of the cast he has assembled that I was turned off. But of course Blanchett chews up the scenery
until not a morsel of it is left. She
alone might make many take delight in what I found to be a labored vehicle of
comedy errors.
That of course is an extreme
example. Lee Daniels’ work in “The
Butler” is something far above mere device and bare bones. The idea of tracing the life of an
Afro-American male, Cecil Gaines (Forrest Whitaker), from plantation poverty
and cruelty to and throughout a career as a manservant in the White House under
eight presidents (beginning with Eisenhower) and using that narrative line to
reflect upon the major newsreel events that have carved themselves into the
nation’s collective memory over the intervening fifty years is at the very
least an enticing adventure of the mind and heart. We see things through Cecil’s eyes. He views the unfolding history from behind
the silent class barrier that keeps him and other household staff in a state of
helpless subservience to a political system in which they have no real
input. So near, at the elbow, but so far
removed!
The film suffers a little for
trying to cover so much of a time span.
A whole half century! So much has
to be skipped over, so much space that never gets filled. Surfaces must be skimmed. But largely compensating for that flaw are
two sterling performances – by Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey as Cecil’s wife and
the mother of his two sons. The work
these two turn in elevates the story so far beyond the mere perfunctory that it
gives deep voice as well as presence to the family’s struggle with the
demeaning life they are forced to live despite the luxury they enjoy. The domestic sequences are by far the best in
the footage.
Oprah at first resisted
Daniels’ offer of the part. But there is
no doubt that whatever else she has developed a knack for over the years,
whatever other personae she has taken to herself, she is still first and
foremost a quality actress. Though a
supporting player she is in enough of the movie to shake me profoundly. I felt so much sympathy for her, even in her
drunken moments. As for Whitaker, I have
to agree with so many others that he here surpasses all his past work, as
adorable as that work has been. Brilliant
seems too tame a word for what he makes of Cecil Gaines. As marginalized as Cecil is on his job, at
home he is right in the thick of intergenerational strife. His oldest son becomes a much battered
Freedom Rider and eventual Black Panther, bringing unexpected worry and
heartache to his parents who want him to finish school and enter a
profession. The youngest son enlists in
the army during the Vietnam War and by so doing adds to the parents’ worry. It is as if the national conflicts have
invaded their well protected lives.
The central conflict is quite
explicitly a generation gap that threatens to swallow the lives of father,
mother, and sons before it can be closed.
I found myself envying Cecil after escaping his horrid childhood and
landing his indoor job in the President’s home, but slowly I began to worry
that all of that would be snatched away as pressures of family close in on him
and he succumbs to the befuddlement of the racial issue that his son brings
into his space. There are some very
harsh moments at the dinner table resulting in a bitter estrangement. But he lives to experience some vindication
for all his heartache when Obama is elected to that White House and new promise
and hope raise their esteemed heads.
As far as I am concerned this
is a fictional tale, even if it was inspired by the life of a factual
person. The cast is huge; most of the
casting is well done, though a few choices provoke a little head-scratching. Robin Williams as Eisenhower!? John Cusack as Nixon!? Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan looks the part,
but why waste an accomplished actress like her in nothing more than a
walk-on? She is only on the screen for
little more than a minute in medium range, never seen in close-up. Another head scratcher is the director
Daniels’ decision to include his name in the titling, something very rarely
done I am pleased to say. “The Butler”
would have been sufficient nomenclature unto itself, without this bit of
conceit. But his writing is good enough
that the vast production does not inundate the major characters. The personal saga comes through most
vividly. In lesser actors’ hands I am
not sure that would have been the case.
Someone of my generation
naturally looks at all the story’s chapters with some degree of nostalgia,
having lived through them all. It would
be interesting to me to hear how the story plays for those who have been born
in the last two or three decades. What
is their experience of Kennedy’s assassination, or the Watergate scandal, or
the Civil Rights Movement or the student protests of the 1960s and 1970s? How do they perceive that their lives have
been impacted upon by all that, or do they at all? The viewer is asked by implication to locate
herself/himself in the ongoing drama of a nation still struggling to understand
the full meaning of economic equality and individual freedom. It would be like my being asked to
contemplate how World War I and the Great Depression have impacted upon me,
neither of which I encountered first hand.
Locating one’s self in the larger odyssey of time and national history
is not easily done, but “The Butler” has made the task at least a bit more
possible for many Americans now living.
I would not be surprised if the picture were sooner or later a part of
high school curricula.
To read other entries in my
blog, please consult its website:
enspiritus.blogspot.com. To learn
about me consult on the website the blog entry for August 9, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment