The Butler (2013) *

Great story - 50 years of the civil rights struggles in America as seen through the eyes of a black White House butler who served under seven presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan - betrayed by a badly directed film that squanders its potential. Simplistic and dogmatic, the film almost never allows psychological complexity to meddle its carefully arranged talking points. The only exception is Ronald Reagan (well played by Alan Rickman), who is allowed to be complex and multi-dimensional.