Forest Whitaker plays the title role, a man who grew up in Southern cotton fields and ended up working in the White House for 34 years. His life serves as a parallel to the civil rights movement, which we witness from the DC POV and thru the struggles of his activist son. While the recreations are told with frank and relentless pain, the creation of the personal story is more simplistic, yet moving. Whitaker is brilliantly underplayed and Oprah Winfrey (as his wife) inhabits her character with surprising depth and disregard for glamour. (Wait til you see who plays Nancy Reagan). There are moments of humor to lighten the load, but this remains a heavy-handed, yet powerful history lesson.
