Lee Daniels' The Butler

Director: Lee Daniels
Genre: Historical Drama
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lenny Kravitz, David Oyelowo
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Release Date: August 16, 2013
My Rating: 9/10

This has undoubtedly been another of my top favorite movies of the summer and of the year thus far. Director Lee Daniels (Precious) brings to the big screen the true story of White House butler Cecil Gaines (Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker), who is based on Eugene Allen, a butler who served eight different US presidents over eight terms, from 1952 to 1986. Over the course of these three decades, Cecil Gaines witnesses a number of historical events both from within and outside the White House, including the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy (James Marsden), the Vietnam War and the Anti-Apartheid Free South Africa Movement. Throughout the film, these events begin to personally affect his family: his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) and his two sons Louis (David Oyelowo) and Charlie. Cecil also quickly befriends two fellow butlers, Carter Wilson (Academy Award-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and James Holloway (Lenny Kravitz).

What I liked most about this film was the fact that, contrary to many similar dramas that covered the same period of American History, this story presented it from a very different point of view: that of an African-American butler of humble origins (he grew up on a farm as a slave for a white plantation owner) who ends up working at the most important building in the nation. To some, the "little-fish-in-a big-pond" story may seem overplayed but to me, it made the story so much stronger. It was also very captivating to see the constant switch between the parallel stories of Cecil's everyday life in the White House (and the special relationships he forms with each president) and that of his family's life, particularly his older son Louis' involvement in movements such as that of the Freedom Riders and the Black Panthers.

Aside the all-star cast led by Whitaker, this film is overall a powerful portrayal of one man and his family, and how they struggle through the turbulent times that marked the post-war era. It is a very human, touching, and 100-percent American story.