Five things about The Butler

Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and David Oyelowo are brilliant actors. I see three Oscar nominations right there.

I feared a Mr. Holland’s Opus: the backdrop-of-history syndrome. But I had nothing to fear. The man was, after all, working in the White House, and for a long time.

Clarence Williams III (Mod Squad, anyone?) now looks like his grandfather, the pianist and composer Clarence Williams.

The character of Louis Gaines (Oyelowo) owes something to John Lewis, just as Elaine intuited.

The film seems to carry a message for young African-Americans concerning a certain racial epithet. Knowing what Winfrey thinks about that word, I could be seeing things. But I don’t think so.

And one more: We watched the film in a nearly empty theater — two other pale people and us. When Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign became part of the storyline, our fellow moviegoers began to mutter and did not stop. They left right away. We stayed through the credits, as we almost always do.

Elaine has written a post with six more things about The Butler.

[The awkward full title: Lee Daniels’ The Butler.]