This was a huge disappointment. I want to touch on 2 points here .
First point, Indecisive - This movie is a real Yawn. Here we have another one of those films that is centered on racism...but it kind of ends up rather all over the place. I understand that each character has its own perspective, on whether to actively participate in politics or to be submissive. In fact I think the directors purposely position the movie in that the whole family encompasses different angles of African American struggle. The sad thing is, in the end, such monumental ordeal appeared rather ordinary, simply because the creators didn't locate enough strings to connect all the dots together, and provide that resonance that would have made this movie amazing.
Second point, whether this movie portray the original butler in a justified manner, never mind that it is only 'loosely' based on Eugene Allen's account. Online sources (very easy-to-find wikipedia articles) reveal several critical flaws that ticked me off - i) the wife was not an alcoholic, ii) the son that went to fight in Vietnam returned home in one piece, iii) the other son was invented, iv) he only attained the highest butler rank during Reagan's administration v) The butler's beginnings were all fabricated - this point is the biggest mistake committed in this movie, in my opinion, because we as the audience would want to know how the main character chose the path of a butler in the first place.
First point, Indecisive - This movie is a real Yawn. Here we have another one of those films that is centered on racism...but it kind of ends up rather all over the place. I understand that each character has its own perspective, on whether to actively participate in politics or to be submissive. In fact I think the directors purposely position the movie in that the whole family encompasses different angles of African American struggle. The sad thing is, in the end, such monumental ordeal appeared rather ordinary, simply because the creators didn't locate enough strings to connect all the dots together, and provide that resonance that would have made this movie amazing.
Second point, whether this movie portray the original butler in a justified manner, never mind that it is only 'loosely' based on Eugene Allen's account. Online sources (very easy-to-find wikipedia articles) reveal several critical flaws that ticked me off - i) the wife was not an alcoholic, ii) the son that went to fight in Vietnam returned home in one piece, iii) the other son was invented, iv) he only attained the highest butler rank during Reagan's administration v) The butler's beginnings were all fabricated - this point is the biggest mistake committed in this movie, in my opinion, because we as the audience would want to know how the main character chose the path of a butler in the first place.