#140RVW
What a weird movie. I guess it’s a satire of the 2008 Democratic Primary, although I didn’t get that from it at the time. Too over the top.
What’s more:
The hardest type of comedy has to be satire. It’s so difficult to get the tone right, and if you miss you really faceplant.
Butter is the story of the over-ambitious wife of a award-winning butter sculptor (yes, apparently that’s a thing) who believes his success will propel them both to political careers. When he steps down from competing, she becomes obsessed with taking up the mantle. The only problem, besides her total lack of any experience, is her competition from both her husband’s stripper lover and a 10-year-old foster child who has a real talent.
Butter really isn’t a very good movie. The script is a total mess, with at least two storylines too many going on and more actors than it can reasonably keep busy. It may be comic, but I’m not sure it can properly be labelled satirical, since it’s unclear what exactly it’s satirizing. Yeah, there’s a political message here that all elections are essentially the same, but it doesn’t really hit the mark.
There’s far too many good actors in this for it to be so poor. And it isn’t awful or anything. The film mainly seems confused about what it wants to be. I find myself in the unique position of recommending that you avoid the movie even though I didn’t think it was all that bad. It just doesn’t really have anything to offer.
The acting is really the only reason to watch Butter, and I’m not talking about the big-name talent. Jennifer Garner really goes for the crazy ambitious wife role with both barrels, but I’ve always found her sort of a lifeless performer anyway, so this isn’t the transformation it’s probably supposed to be. Ty Burrell does his thing, Kristen Schaal is herself and Alicia Silverstone is practically unrecognizable as a frumpy mom. Olivia Wilde is nicely over the top as Brooke and Hugh Jackman is just weird.
No, the star of the show is Yara Shahidi as the talented Destiny. This young actress is splendid and her performance alone justifies the 90 minutes I spent watching this. She has some really nice scenes with Rob Corddry, who up until this point I could take or leave. But he is wonderfully understated in this movie as Destiny’s foster dad and the first person to really connect with the girl. His character’s gentle caring for this amazing young kid is truly an unexpected subtlety in a movie that doesn’t deal in the small moments.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: A (11 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Jennifer Garner Laura, Yara Shahidi Destiny, Ty Burrell Bob, Olivia Wilde Brooke |
| Rating | R |
| Release Date | Thu 18 Oct 2012 UTC |
| Director | Jim Field Smith |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Plot | In Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town’s annual contest. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 90 |
| Tagline | A comedy about sex, power and spreading the wealth. |
| Writers | Jason A. Micallef (as Jason Micallef) (written by) |
| Year | 2011 |
