Oprah Winfrey Succeeds in a Tough Role in ‘The Butler’

Only a few days after seeing it, I’m venturing to say that Lee Daniels’ The Butler* ranks among my favorite films of 2013. It’s about as subtle as Miley Cyrus, but personally, I don’t particularly mind that in a movie so engrossing and emotionally affecting (to wit: Black Swan is one of my favorite films of the past ten years).  Condensing almost a century of history of the Civil Rights movement into slightly more than two hours is an impressive feat, one that may not have been possible with a lighter touch on the themes and message.

The ambitious scope of The Butler is counterbalanced by its focus on one family, eponymous White House butler Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), and their children, particularly committed Civil Rights activist Louis (a standout David Oyelowo). My Bitch Flicks colleague Erin Tatum’s piece on The Butler excellently explores how the Gaines family dynamic “chronicles the cross-generational struggle to define black identity and masculinity in a racist American society.”  While the central father-son relationship between Cecil and Louis is fascinating, it unfortunately leaves Oprah Winfrey’s Gloria in a more typical beleaguered wife role.

Oprah’s performance, however, elevates Gloria. Like the film, Oprah’s acting sometimes pushes the edge of melodrama, but also like the film, there’s great emotional payoff. In a film rife with occasionally distracting (although sometimes delightful) stunt casting, it’s a pleasant surprise that one of the most famous media personalities in the world is able to fade (although not quite disappear) into her character.

To see the queen of elongated shouted introductions and epic inspirational content play a cynical, alcoholic who cheats on her husband and slaps her kid might smack of awards-baiting, but Oprah’s acting is actually up to snuff. She plays the character convincingly while making her more compelling by leaning on her own abundant charisma. It’s always clear why Cecil loves Gloria despite the regular strain in their marriage, and that she is a good mother despite her personal weaknesses.

Oprah’s success in the role is even more important because Gloria is the only fully-realized female character in The Butler. A lot of the female characters don’t even speak, despite their significance to the plot and relatively high-profile casting. Mariah Carey plays Cecil’s mother and is raped for plot reasons but not given any dialogue. The blood on the stockings of Minka Kelly’s Jackie Kennedy get more screen time than her face. Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan is only present long enough for us to all have a good chuckle at that cheeky casting. (Yaya Alafia has a strong single scene as Louis”s cold-as-ice Black Panther girlfriend Carol, but it’s actually Oprah’s Oscar-clip moment.)

I’ve mentioned several weaknesses in this review, but again, I very much enjoyed and admire Lee Daniels’ The Butler. And despite loving it all-around, my strongest feeling leaving the film was my wish that Oprah Winfrey would act more. I admire her choosiness about her roles (and her promotion of black cinema and artists), but I wish she was just slightly less choosy so we could see more of her on screen. For a woman so successful in other fields, it seems almost unfair that Oprah is such a gifted actress, but it’s even more unfair that we only get to see her in a major film role once every fifteen years or so.

*Lest you think the director of Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire just has a thing for unnecessarily long titles, note that Daniels’s name had to be appended to the film’s title after a bizarre challenge from Warner Bros. to protect 1917 comedy short by the same name. I’m also somewhat perplexed by the decision to forgo the additional s after the possessive apostrophe because Lee Daniels is a singular proper noun that isn’t Moses or Jesus, but the Chicago Manual of Style condones this punctuation for names ending in a z sound, so I’ll let it go. /perscriptivism