Historical movies aren't usually something that I enjoy watching. This movie seemed to be getting a lot of good things said about it though; this made me want to see what all the buzz was about. I really didn't know much about the movie when I went to watch it...other than it was about a butler in the White House.
Actors: Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, Mariah Carey as Hattie Pearl, Oprah Winfrey as Gloria Gaines, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carter Wilson, Terrence Howard as Howard, and many, many more!
Director: Lee Daniels
Movie Release Date: August 16, 2013
DVD Release Date: January 14, 2014
The movie is based off of a real life human being. He was a slave in the south that ended up becoming a butler in the White House. This is not the note worthy part of his life (at least, in my opinion). The value in his story is when his life happened and the events going on in the world. He was trapped between the politics going on in the White House about civil rights, and his son who was on the streets fighting to improve those rights.By far, the best quality of this movies is that it begins as a narrative but grows to become so much more. For a moment, I actually stopped thinking of the movie as some boring history lesson to a beautiful story of events. I was moved by the acting and events that happened within the movie. Normally I would walk away from movies like this one without caring too much, but it is just so well done. So I truly enjoyed watching the movie. It filled me with wonder that there was an actually human being out there in the world who lived through all that!
There are a few funny moments for me in this movie that have more to do with me than the movie itself. Those moments were mostly due to the actors (or more my opinions of them). The randomness of Mariah Carey in this movie completely threw me off. She didn't even really have any lines (which I was grateful for!). The seemingly random actors used for presidents was awesome! Robin Williams played Eisenhower, John Cusack played Nixon, James Marsden played JFK, Liev Schreiber played Johnson (and Sabertooth from X-Men!), but by far the one that threw me off the most and made me laugh the hardest was Professor Snape as Ronald Reagan! I just found really comical! (The actor's name is Alan Rickman, in case you were wondering.)
Overall, I completely understand why this movie is talked about so much. It is a great movie that eventually makes you forget that you are watching history. I am super happy I went out, bought this movie, and watched it! there are some racial slurs and violent scenes within the movie, so it is probably not for the squeamish. But it is a film that I think young, old, and everyone in between could benefit from seeing. So go see it and enjoy a fun telling of history that isn't boring!
Hope you have a brilliant day!
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