Review: ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ significant but often contrived

Though that rating imposes some constraints, the director’s contempt for subtlety, weakness for cliché and perennial determination to wring every last drop of emotion out of a situation are inevitably factors here.

Nevertheless, “The Butler” reveals Daniels’ ability to create believable black middle class situations that are so hard to come by on mainstream screens. (It took the combined efforts of close to 40 different producers to finally make this film a reality.)

But paralleling this gift, and hampering “The Butler,” is Daniels’ tin ear when it comes to white folks, individuals who do not have a fraction of the recognizable humanity of the black characters even in the rare moments when they’re not being racists or morons or both.

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