The Butler

Actors:  Forrest Whitaker, Oprah Winfield, David Olyelowo, Terence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr.

Rating:  7 out of 10, Not really my cup of tea but some truly excellent acting on display (I’d forgotten what a good actress Winfrey was) as we watch a sharecropper son’s life long journey from poverty to the White House where he serves a number of presidents as butler.  His life is used to demonstrate the civil rights movement from the late 1950’s to the present time.  That makes this film important as these critical events are too easily swept under the carpet of receding memories.  It was kind of jarring to see Robin Williams as Eisenhower and John Cusack as Nixon.  Obama has become such a lightning rod during his presidency that it’s easy to forget what his election meant to so many people who fought the good fight for so long.  That was the best moment in the movie.

MVP:  Oprah as the long neglected butler’s wife Gloria