Lee Daniel's The Butler

Does Lee Daniels himself have a butler? Because that right there is what I'd like to watch. I bet he's hot too! But this movie is about how highly accomplished white men who've never even seen the Green Mile take pity on a hulking, and sadly dignified, black man. Reconciling humility with dignity isn't easy, and the butler at the White House elevates it to an art and by doing so, saves every black person in America. Except for from racism. And themselves. This movie would have been so much better if the butler's militant son had married Caroline Kennedy, because then all racial problems in America would have vanished. Obviously. But none of this takes away from the most touching moment in the movie, which is of course when the butler goes on Oprah and he cries and she cries and the audience cries (because they get bribed out the wazoo by extravagant giveaways). I can't remember seeing that segment on the tv, but I'm sure there was talk about it. The butler serves several American presidents. Sometimes they're not reelected and they still call him in the middle of the night and he rises without complaint, grooms himself quickly and efficiently, gives himself a steely look in the bathroom mirror while holding the sink, realizes he doesn't have to hold the sink because he is a man of intense power derived from abiding faith in God and humanity and then he hops into the helicopter chopping and flashing in his front yard and rides off to Texas to help LBJ get his fucking cat out of a goddamn mesquite tree. And whereas his tearjerking interview with Oprah (where somehow they wind up in bed together ???!!!!!) is the most touching part of the movie, the best part are the celebrities who play Presidents- particularly Billy Crystal as Nixon. I mean, who knew?! Personally I thought David Cross was a little shot to play Reagan, but hey, that's just a credit to this movie's make-up artists with a lowercase a! This movie covers several years and administrations and is thereby epic in sleep, but I came away with a sense of hope that people can put up with all kinds of shit and sometimes they get scantly rewarded for it, and from a voyeuristic perspective, I'm just relieved I don't have to do that. So good job Lee Daniels! 3 Stars.