BUTTER
Directed by: Jim Field Smith
Written by: Jason A. Micallef
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Yara Shahidi, Olivia Wilde, Hugh Jackman, Ashley Greene, Ty Burrell, Kristin Schaal, Rob Cordry, Alicia Silverstone, and Phyllis Smith
Have you ever wanted to see a dark comedy set against the backdrop of an Iowa State Fair butter carving championship? Well, neither did I, but this is what we are served up in BUTTER. More contrivance than genuine laughs, the wannabe quirky indie film tries desperately to be clever and witty, but it melts after about the 30 minute mark.
Jennifer Garner plays Laura Pickler, an ambitious woman in overdrive equal to Michelle Bachman by way of Martha Stewart. Her husband Bob is a 15 year Iowa State butter carving champion. When he’s told to step down to let others have a chance at winning (or as I like to call it, the first hurdle audiences are asked to suspend their disbelief for) it throws Laura into a tizzy, and throws Bob in between the legs of low rent stripper Brooke (Olivia Wilde). Meanwhile, in another part of Johnson County, a precocious, too wise to be believable 10 year-old foster child named Destiny (Yara Shahidi) has been taken in by Ethan and Jill Emmet (Rob Cordry and Alicia Silverstone). Destiny idolizes the Picklers as they are the local celebrities, specifically Bob with his butter carving skills. At school she proves she is a talented artist worthy enough to compete in the county competition. The winner of this contest will then go on to the state competition. Once Laura catches wind that Destiny is a worthy adversary, it’s an all out war (mostly with a grown ass woman picking on a small child).
Every character in this film is a cartoon or comment on what Hollywood thinks is funny. Ashley Greene, who plays Laura’s step daughter, is simply playing the displaced and angry teen character Thora Birch played in American Beauty. Olivia Wilde does make for a fabulous unrepentant bad girl, but not here when they turn her into a comment on pandering to the religious right. Laura’s former boyfriend, Boyd (Hugh Jackman), is the stereotypical bumbling redneck out to help Laura eviscerate a young girl’s dream. Seriously. Do any of these people have a conscience? Oh wait. The poor, saintly little girl does, and she’s gonna butter you up with her charm.
The script by Jason A. Micallef is very uneven in tone. Moments of sweetness are followed by raunchy jokes and then it immediately switches back again. It’s a see saw in need of the balance of a Judd Apatow film. And as I mentioned above, there are huge suspensions of disbelief peppered throughout. The worst offender, the scene where Laura demands a rematch based on her lie that Destiny cheated, is abhorrently stupid on so many levels. And that Destiny agrees to complete the challenge is simply unbelievable. There’s also a completely unearned (and unwanted) late third act turn around for one character in particular, thanks to Destiny’s words of wisdom, that acts as the final straw for the viewer.
There are very few bright spots in this film. The one thing I’m grateful the script doesn’t do is force Destiny to run off after she hears bad news – thus throwing her chances of winning into peril. However, the fact that she is OK with this news is weirdly unsettling. Newcomer Shahidi is all sorts of cute adorableness but her narration (cough, cough, writers crutch), as well as Garner’s, is irritating to say the least. Wilde’s disinterested stripper who rides around town on a kid’s bike, and the always adorable Kristen Schaal get some of the film’s biggest laughs.
Much like Laura’s losing butter carvings, the work is physically there, however, there’s no heart or earned laughter. Perhaps it just wasn’t churned long enough.
BUTTER played AFI Fest on November 6. It opens on March 16.
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