Music wise, putting aside the sacharrine sweet variety, there are some nice, classy jazz pieces played in other scenes, presumably music featuring black vocalists. Also, John Cusak plays Richard Nixon, although I felt his performance to be less memorable. The late Robin Williams has a relatively short time on screen, playing President Eisenhower - he seemed quite well fitted to the role, although that may sound hard to believe but I felt so. Other cast members include Cuba Gooding Jnr who plays Carter Wilson, a somewhat outspoken fellow butler, David Banner as Earl Gaines, Alex Pettyfer as Thomas Westfall and Mariah Carey (yes, the singer) as Hattie Pearl. Other cast members include Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Annabeth Westfall, David Oyelowo who plays Louis Gaines and Oprah Winfrey, who plays Gloria Gaines and seemed surprisingly understated as a wife and mother, who seemed to keep to herself. I found myself respecting his workmanship and wondering what it must have been like to live with the prejudice around in the decades the film covers. Forest Whitaker plays the main character, Cecil and I felt he did well at showing himself to be potentially vulnerable, yet a stalwort, a gradually more respected member of the White House staff. I thought the film was well cast, featuring a range of well known and respected actors. However, I did feel that perhaps the musical score could have been toned down ever so slightly, as it did feel a little 'pushy' and typical Hollywood style fare, which is a shame as I feel it slightly cheapened what is a film about important issues and a depiction of one remarkable mans life. This film does well at handling serious subjects, coming across as quite sad of course, moving and thoughtful. Its certainly fair to say that characters are more informal when in their working quarters, compared to when their anywhere near whats referred to as 'the white man' and understandably so, I suppose, although I felt sad from early on at how marginalised Cecil was treated, both by specific personal acts and by society in general, i.e. One scene quite early on started with another character talking very sexually explicitly, which took me aback. It doesn't hold back as far as racial slurs and the like are concerned, even though most of the film shows Cecil in very upper class surroundings. I found this film relatively shocking in parts, although not for the reason you may be expecting. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
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