Lee Daniels' The Butler
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: August 16, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
17
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireSimon BraundNov 11, 2013
Manipulative and preachy, The Butler is redeemed by a sensitive performance from Forest Whitaker and the undeniable power of the events it depicts. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 15, 2013
Daniels' pulp instincts do lead to vivid sequences...but this is one significant film where less would have been a whole lot more. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 16, 2013
Making it even more intriguing is the fact that the whole thing is, extraordinarily, inspired by a true story. Read full review
55
NPRMark JenkinsAug 16, 2013
Many of the White House scenes are jarringly motley, as Whitaker maintains Gaines' dignity against a series of performances that range from bland (James Marsden's JFK) to cartoonish (Liev Schreiber's LBJ). It comes as a relief when Daniels reduces Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford to TV clips — though that strategy makes the film even more of a stylistic jumble. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 19, 2013
By trying to inflate one remarkable life story into the chronicle of a generation, Daniels fills what could have been an inspirational, personal saga with a lot of hot air. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 14, 2013
Lee Daniels’ The Butler is big, brave, crude and contradictory, very bad in places and very good in others, and every American should see it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 15, 2013
A nice idea for a movie, but has a mostly silly script and some of the craziest and most laughable casting imaginable. But the movie's main challenge is a simple one: It is very difficult, next to impossible, to build a movie around an inert, inactive character. Read full review
40
The DissolveNathan RabinAug 14, 2013
Instead of committing wholeheartedly to telling the story of a single family, Daniels gets distracted trying to tell the story of our nation’s complicated racial history. Read full review
40
The GuardianKaty RichAug 9, 2013
A great film about the American civil rights movement is way overdue. The Butler, overwhelmed by flash and good intentions, doesn't even come close. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 9, 2013
Inspiring if not inspired, Lee Daniels' The Butler is a sort of Readers' Digest overview of the 20th century American civil rights movement centered on an ordinary individual with an extraordinary perspective. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid DenbyAug 19, 2013
The Butler is a lightweight, didactic movie, a kind of well-produced high-school entertainment. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKimber MyersAug 9, 2013
Lee Daniels’ The Butler could be an important film that comes at a time where race is still a challenging topic for America, but it succeeds less as a film than as a history lesson. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichAug 9, 2013
Viewers familiar with Daniels’s idiosyncratically vulgar work might be disappointed that there’s little here that compares to Nicole Kidman loosing a yellow stream on Zac Efron’s jellyfish stings in "The Paperboy" (2012). Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonNov 12, 2013
The result isn’t as powerful as it should be. But it’s still cheering to see a film whose moral journey has little to do with the usual Hollywood chestnut of white middle-class consciousness-raising. Read full review
60
Total FilmTony HorkinsNov 7, 2013
It may skip so quickly through historic events that it can feel rushed and flimsy, but excellent performances elevate it to serious Oscar contender. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 15, 2013
The butler, Cecil Gaines, is a fictional creation, an African-American Forrest Gump who bears special witness to the civil-rights movement while serving on the White House staff under seven presidents. The contrivance is stretched to its breaking point over a running time of 132 minutes; some of the episodes cross a different line from almost plausible to downright silly. That's not the whole story, though. Read full review
50
Washington PostJohn AndersonAug 15, 2013
Even as Cecil lives his life slightly adjacent to history, building a heroic film around him requires herculean effort. Read full review
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