THE BUTLER (12A) It’s sometimes hard to reconcile the fact that America is actually quite a young country, in comparison to others.

It is also extraordinary to think that only 40 or 50 years ago, the country was in the grip of a real struggle as civil rights threatened the fabric of society.

Lee Daniels, who directed the Oscar winning Precious, tells the story of this struggle through the eyes of a butler who served 7 presidents from Eisenhower through to Reagan, and his son whose direct experience of racial hatred and his fight against it, puts him at odds with the older generation.

Cecil (Forest Whitaker) is brought up on a cotton farm in the 1920’s, and when his father is murdered in front of him, he gets brought into the house where he starts to learn to serve.

Leaving the cotton farm, he greets a world that does not tolerate his kind. Thanks to the kindly intervention of a hotel manager, he ends up becoming an outstanding waiter is sent up to Washington and then hand-picked to become a butler to the White House, serving the presidents.

As history unfolds in front of him, he faces challenges at home with his wife’s (Oprah Winfrey) drinking and his increasing antagonism with his more reactionary oldest son (David Oyelowo), as the civil rights movement causes headaches for the various incumbents of the Oval office, and Cecil’s own life.

The Butler is as measured and stately as the man himself. Meandering through history with the occasional crisis thrown in, the film feels like it missed an opportunity to have much more of an emotional impact than it does.

Whitaker gives a superb performance, subtly nuanced, with his physical decline over 60 years a masterclass in acting.

Winfrey and Oyelowo are equally excellent in support, and one hopes they are recognised for it.

It is fun to see a range of famous actors taking on various presidents, with Alan Rickman as the stand out as Reagan followed by Liev Schreiber having a lot of fun as Lyndon Johnson.

It’s a bit too long in places and almost too understated. It does have a very moving conclusion, but one can’t help but feel it could have upped its dramatic intensity a notch to be really good.

6.5/10