The Butler (Original Title)

First Hit:  Some of the performances were outstanding while others were miscast and poor.

I do not like the ego of directors or writers who name their film with their name as part of the title. This film was originally called "The Butler" and now it is called and marketed as “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”.

I’m sure there are reasons why, but for me it taints a films’ integrity. Why? Because it means that the director (in this case) views himself as or more important than the film itself.

The best thing about this film was viewing changes in the civil rights movement through Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) life. Where he watched his mother being abused by the slave owner, his father shot by saying something about it to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and finally a black man being elected President of the United States. How it was portrayed by Whitaker, David Oyelowo, and Oprah Winfrey was excellent.

What didn’t work about this film? The representation of the Presidents Cecil served during his time in the White House. This is a great story about how a man learned how to serve with great strength of character and gained respect for his service and being of service. Although his home life was hard at times with his wife being an alcoholic and his oldest son becoming a radical of the sixties with the Black Panthers, he persevered these things as well as losing his youngest son in Vietnam and through it all he continued to be an honorable man.

Whitaker is wonderful and electric in this role. Winfrey is difficult to watch at the beginning because it is hard to separate Oprah from the role. If she acted more, she would be able to have the audience transcend her television persona more easily because she is a very good actress. Oyelowo is absolutely great as Whitaker’s son. Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower didn’t capture Dwight’s pace or energy. John Cusack did get the creepiness of Nixon but paled as the film moved on. James Marsden seemed more like Bobby Kennedy than John F. Kennedy. Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson was pathetic. Alan Rickman was slightly worse than Schreiber as Ronald Reagan. However, I though Jane Fonda was a priceless and fabulous choice as Nancy Reagan – she caught the look, feel and ways of Nancy. Danny Strong wrote a good script. Lee Daniels got good performances from some actors but the choice of others for their roles was very weak.

Overall:  The real story got slightly demeaned by the actors chosen to be Presidents.

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

First Hit: A powerful film about a young woman finding both hope and her path after growing up in abuse.

Gabourey Sidibe embodies Precious a teenage girl finding a way out of a life of physical and emotional abuse.

Precious’ mother is powerfully played by Mo’Nique who allowed her daughter to be sexually abused by her boyfriend and Precious' father. These are just two of many engaging performances in this film.

The relationship between these two as mother and daughter is extraordinary in its exposing how twisted and embattled a parental child relationship can get. To escape, Precious fantasizes about being a famous star, about being married to her teacher, and about having a different life which are interludes in the film.

The director Lee Daniels chose to represent these fantasies as realistic scene segues which didn’t quite work for me. I thought they took away from the film. As Precious finds her own strength and voice by going to an alternative school class taught by Ms. Rain (played by Paula Patton), she begins to learn how to read and write her story as a way of seeing, processing and dealing with her life of abuse.

The scenes of her classmates surrounding her and supporting her after she delivers her second baby (her father is the daddy of both children) was a true measure of how these teens still have the ability to lift themselves out of horrible situations when they are given respect, attention and seen as people with honor.

Lastly, I’d like to say that Mariah Carey as the social worker was a great casting selection. Her performance was spot on. Towards the end of the film when she, Precious and Mary sit together one last time, the dialog and performances were breathtaking.

Daniels did an incredible job directing this film although I wasn’t a fan of the fantasies. Sidibe was hauntingly wonderful as Precious. Mo’Nique was beyond amazing as Mary and her monologue when she explains why she allowed the abuse to go on in the interview with Carey was without hesitation the most powerful scene on film this year. Patton was strong and a ray of light in this very dark film.

Overall: Astonishing piece of work with no punches pulled.