I'd first like to say that Forest Whitaker is a brilliant actor. Had it not been for his artful presence and emotion, this would have been a flop. He deserves 10 stars; the film does not. I'd like to say first that this is not a biopic. There is no Cecil Gaines that worked at the White House. None. This story is loosely (very loosely) based on Eugene Allen who worked at the White House for 34 years. He was from Virginia, never worked in a field, never saw his mother violated nor his father murdered, and did not have a son killed in Vietnam. The film really painted this to be the truth and led patrons to believe it was.
Some of the most patently preposterous casting ever was seen in this film. James Marsden is the only one who even came remotely close. Robin Williams is a horrible Ike Eisenhower. He looks more like Harry Truman on Chemo. John Cusack is a ghastly Richard Nixon. The gross miscasting was very distracting and the cast members exhibited little chemistry. It was if I were watching a poorly edited TV drama in many places.
The civil rights story is fine but we've seen it a hundred times and this parroted many of the good movies already made about this movement. So much of it was clichéd. I would have rather seen a movie about Mr. Allen's interaction with the chief executives than a fictional story about blacks and whites, alcohol abuse, and Jim Crow.
Some of the most patently preposterous casting ever was seen in this film. James Marsden is the only one who even came remotely close. Robin Williams is a horrible Ike Eisenhower. He looks more like Harry Truman on Chemo. John Cusack is a ghastly Richard Nixon. The gross miscasting was very distracting and the cast members exhibited little chemistry. It was if I were watching a poorly edited TV drama in many places.
The civil rights story is fine but we've seen it a hundred times and this parroted many of the good movies already made about this movement. So much of it was clichéd. I would have rather seen a movie about Mr. Allen's interaction with the chief executives than a fictional story about blacks and whites, alcohol abuse, and Jim Crow.