Director: Jim Field Smith
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, Hugh Jackman, Yara Shahidi
Butter (2011) tells the story of a 10-year-old foster child named Destiny. After moving from home to home in Iowa, she lands with Jill and Ethan Emmet (Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry) with plenty of hilarious tales to tell about her previous foster parents. At her new school, she discovers her talent for art. She decides to compete in the county’s butter sculpting competition. Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) has won the Iowa state fair’s butter sculpting competition for the past fifteen years, and is asked to retire. His neurotic wife, Laura (Jennifer Garner) who refuses to give up the perks and political power of his butter reign, decides to run, herself, to preserve their family legacy. Bob’s cheating with a hooker named Brooke (Olivia Wilde) leads Brooke to enter the competition as well, in order to defeat Laura.
I absolutely love these actors together in this ensemble cast. This is the best performance I’ve ever seen from Jennifer Garner by far. I think I would categorize Butter as a quirky heart-warming comedy. This is a truly funny film in a way that is extremely original and not trying too hard. The humor is very witty and quick. I was excited to see Ty Burrell in a film because I love him in Modern Family, but he was a big let down for me. His character, Bob did nothing interesting besides screw a stripper in his mini van in the very beginning of the film. Bob is also largely left out of the second part of the film, which I thought was odd because he has such an important role in the beginning: bringing together the three women to compete against each other.
Butter was the third most popular unrealized script on the 2008 Hollywood Blacklist. The Hollywood Blacklist consists of films that for one reason or another are not getting the green-light to begin production. It took about two years, but finally Jason Micallef’s first screenplay, which won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 2008 Nicholl Fellowship, was made and released in 2011.
The film’s trailer definitely emphasizes the political aspects of the film over Destiny’s storyline. It is rumored to be a satire about the 2008 Democratic Presidential primaries and certainly has some political references woven in with all the butter. Laura is a reference to Hillary stepping out of the shadows after supporting a cheating Bill for many years to claim her own political success. It isn’t overly political, though. Jason Micallef did a good job of mixing comedy, butter sculpting, and politics and balancing the three aspects in a way that I think could please anybody who watches the film.
VHS Rating: 8.5 / 10
Written by Ellie Schlosser
