After "Precious" and "The Paperboy", Lee Daniels' newest work takes us into the history of the United States of America. It's written by Danny Strong, who already penned the multiple award-winning TV films "Game Change" and "Recount" and is up for the Hunger Games sequels next. Things must have clicked as Strong and Daniels will also reunite for another upcoming television movie.
Forest Whitaker is Cecil Gaines, the central character here, and he's always a welcome presence to me. I don't know if he's the greatest actor under the sun, but he has lots of charisma and I always enjoy watching him. Here we can witness his character for considerably over two hours stuck between the goal to be the invisible servant and fighting his own fight for equality in the White House. The film starts with his younger days, but I have to say that part really didn't interest me at all. There were a couple interesting references early on, especially about how terms like "house n***er" were truly common back then and even used by the non/less racist White people, but it was basically all about showing us how Blacks were discriminated against and often even hurt/killed without punishment. Vanessa Redgrave was kinda wasted here. Shortly afterwards, Gaines rises and becomes a butler to more and more influential people. From a renowned hotel, he makes the step up to the White House.
Here we see his journey through the years and how he encounters all the Presidents during his profession. This was actually my favorite part to see all of them portrayed with their quirks and the approaches Robin Williams, John Cusack, Alan Rickman etc. gave them. Especially Cusack's early interaction scene with the Black staff when his character was still Vice President was excellent. Usually, you only have one President in a biopic, but here we have a whole lot more. I found this even more interesting than all the references connected with racial equality and the scenes with Martin Luther King for example, although David Oyelowo gave a convincing portrayal as Gaines' son and when they reunited in the end as Cecil comes to support his son's efforts, it was one of the biggest tearjerker moments of the film. Another one was the way the Kennedy assassination was depicted. Very well done. What could have been done better was the MLK assassination and the death of Gaines' wife one day before Obama's election (what a coincidence!). Surely some potential here that was not really fulfilled. The wife was played by Oprah Winfrey and she's considered the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars at this point. While I thought she was good for the most part, can't blame her or Howard for their pointless sub-plot, I don't think she was that good. We'll see if she can really garner considerable awards attention for her role here.
As a whole, I recommend this film. It's certainly not the truly great political movie it aims to be, but if you focus on its strengths and especially all the action at the White House and the father-son relationship or just love Whitaker as much as I do, it's definitely worth a watch. Of course, a lot was included for dramatic effects and wasn't really adequate for history, but that shouldn't keep anybody from watching these thoroughly entertaining two hours. Another problem I personally had with the film is that sometimes its message became just too gooey, for example the last scenes leading up to Obama's election left a bit of a bitter aftertaste for me. I'm free from any kind of racial prejudice, so, even if it was a historically significant event, I just can't really understand the sentiment that we have to celebrate and put so much emphasis on a White, Black, Asian, Indian... president, as long as it's the best guy for the job and everybody has to answer that question for themselves.
Forest Whitaker is Cecil Gaines, the central character here, and he's always a welcome presence to me. I don't know if he's the greatest actor under the sun, but he has lots of charisma and I always enjoy watching him. Here we can witness his character for considerably over two hours stuck between the goal to be the invisible servant and fighting his own fight for equality in the White House. The film starts with his younger days, but I have to say that part really didn't interest me at all. There were a couple interesting references early on, especially about how terms like "house n***er" were truly common back then and even used by the non/less racist White people, but it was basically all about showing us how Blacks were discriminated against and often even hurt/killed without punishment. Vanessa Redgrave was kinda wasted here. Shortly afterwards, Gaines rises and becomes a butler to more and more influential people. From a renowned hotel, he makes the step up to the White House.
Here we see his journey through the years and how he encounters all the Presidents during his profession. This was actually my favorite part to see all of them portrayed with their quirks and the approaches Robin Williams, John Cusack, Alan Rickman etc. gave them. Especially Cusack's early interaction scene with the Black staff when his character was still Vice President was excellent. Usually, you only have one President in a biopic, but here we have a whole lot more. I found this even more interesting than all the references connected with racial equality and the scenes with Martin Luther King for example, although David Oyelowo gave a convincing portrayal as Gaines' son and when they reunited in the end as Cecil comes to support his son's efforts, it was one of the biggest tearjerker moments of the film. Another one was the way the Kennedy assassination was depicted. Very well done. What could have been done better was the MLK assassination and the death of Gaines' wife one day before Obama's election (what a coincidence!). Surely some potential here that was not really fulfilled. The wife was played by Oprah Winfrey and she's considered the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars at this point. While I thought she was good for the most part, can't blame her or Howard for their pointless sub-plot, I don't think she was that good. We'll see if she can really garner considerable awards attention for her role here.
As a whole, I recommend this film. It's certainly not the truly great political movie it aims to be, but if you focus on its strengths and especially all the action at the White House and the father-son relationship or just love Whitaker as much as I do, it's definitely worth a watch. Of course, a lot was included for dramatic effects and wasn't really adequate for history, but that shouldn't keep anybody from watching these thoroughly entertaining two hours. Another problem I personally had with the film is that sometimes its message became just too gooey, for example the last scenes leading up to Obama's election left a bit of a bitter aftertaste for me. I'm free from any kind of racial prejudice, so, even if it was a historically significant event, I just can't really understand the sentiment that we have to celebrate and put so much emphasis on a White, Black, Asian, Indian... president, as long as it's the best guy for the job and everybody has to answer that question for themselves.