Butter

Uneven but, at times, amusing offbeat comedy about the participants in a butter sculpture contest. When butter sculpture king, Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) is asked to step aside after 15 years in the spotlight, his vengeful, social climber wife, Laura (Jennifer Garner) decides to enter to win to keep the Pickler name at the top. When she comes up against a truly talented 10 year old orphan, Destiny (Yara Shahidi) the gloves come off as Laura Pickler fights to keep herself socially relevant. While the film isn't perfect, the script by Jason A. Micallef provides some fun satirical wit and director Jim Field Smith guides a good cast through the hit and miss material well enough to entertain. And while for the most part, Butter is a fun satire of middle America, it does have a tendency to divert attention to subplots that don't serve the story. No more evident then Bob's involvement with a hooker (Olivia Wilde) who then becomes involved with the contest and Bob's daughter (Ashley Greene). It provides some sex and spice to the film but, nothing to the plot as does Hugh Jackman's brief appearance as an old flame of Laura's. While the film's focus does wander, there is enough there to make this an amusing enough watch and the cast helps carry things well enough when it flounders. More like 6.5

I thought this movie was hilarious! It is a black comedy all the way though, so if you don't care for that style of humor you probably won't get this movie. Many of the characters are exaggerated and the plot line itself is a bit over the top, but that is the purpose of a dark comedy. All of the actors are great in this! Jennifer Garner really shines as the more villainous Laura Pickler, and it's nice to see her in a more against type role. Olivia Wilde also stood out as Brooke the local stipper. However, the biggest stand out was Yara Shahidi as 10 year old Destiny. She did an excellent job in the role and really brought heart to the movie. Overall I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but if you enjoy black comedies this is one worth checking out.

12 May 2013. Surprisingly better than would be expected, this rather remarkable fusion of the delicate blending of comedy and drama that Jennifer Garner is able to pull off successfully is a work of either wickedly lucky directing and acting or a wonderfully brilliant but risky work of seriously hard-hitting meanness soften somehow by humor and lightness. This oil and water mixture somehow comes out like butter on the hotplate unburned. With echoes of similar comedy-drama competition genres such as Bottle Shock (2008) and Blow Dry (2001), the fascinating focus is a dueling plot line between a girl and a woman with a Little Miss Sunshine (2006) or Jersey Girl (2004) mixture in it. Unlike the more serious tone of People Like Us (2012) or August Rush (2007), Butter still is able to capture a strong emotive punch from both the girl and Jennifer Garner's performance.

this movie is overall good. good movie casting choice and the storyline has successfully conveyed a meaningful message to the audience. it also has reflected the lives of the people in the America so it is relateble to almost everyone. even though I feel that there are a few unneeded scenes and a few details which have not been mentioned in the movie. all I have to say is that I loved it, it's funny and meaningful and I recommend everyone to watch it too. I don't understand why some people think it's silly and stupid when I actually cried at the touching ending. I don't think it's silly or stupid because I actually did learn something from this movie. 8/10.

This film is about an ambitious woman trying to carry on her husband's butter sculpting legacy.

I found the topic of butter sculpting rather unusual, and therefore intriguing. the plot itself was a nice surprise, it's fast paced in the sense that the first competition already finished aid thirty minutes into the film. Destiny is a captivating character, her transformation and her ability to view life in such a positive way is remarkable. the stripper subplot is interesting as well and she has a memorably rebellious character. I found the film quite inspirational, even though the ending is a little contrived, as Jennifer Garner didn't question what happened in the competition.