Serving Time: The Butler

As someone has said, one of the problems in Hollywood may be that there are not enough good parts for black actors - but that doesn't mean the solution is to create bad parts for black actors. Alas, perhaps no movie in history has created more bad parts for black actors than the erstwhile and deadly dull The Butler. But don't worry, no racism here - The Butler creates lots of bad parts for white actors, too! Suffice it say that this film, which follows Forrest Whitaker across the course of his lifetime, from growing up on a Southern cotton farm where he sees his mother raped and father shot to death, to work in the hotel field and finally to a position as White House butler where he served every president from DDE to Reagan - all "based on a true story." Perhaps pretty loosely based, as the very clumsy screenplay has Whitaker overhear presidents talk about just about every major national event - and meanwhile, his older son, a Freedom Rider, manages to be present (and telecast!) at just about every major civil rights event of the 60s and 70s. The movie reminds us of another Forrest - i.e., Gump - which was not my favorite film by any means but at least was a bit light-hearted, whereas The Butler is so deadly earnest and serious. The domestic scenes of Whitaker and his wife, played by Oprah - both of them much too old for the parts - are the highlight; the clunky montages contrasting the civil rights protests with Whitaker serving tea trays and state dinners, are amateurish. Perhaps a good idea for a film - but these 2+ hour films that span decades rarely succeed at storytelling - just at pomposity and self-aggrandizement. To make this a good movie, for one thing, Whitaker should at last get a chance to tell off some or all of the bastards under whom he had to serve - even if that's not part of the "true story." I'm sure people involved with this movie felt they were doing something "important" - but how about something that feels true, alive, and even entertaining? That's important, too.