The Butler

   As well as being fitness freaks the Kiwis love their choc-tops! I am at Lighthouse Cuba to see a film whose trailers looked too good to miss. I hope I am right.

But back to kiwi fitness - if there is one phenomenon which stands out like the proverbial, it is the fact that Kiwis, or is Wellingtonians, seem to jog everywhere, that is, if they are not running for their lives. Perhaps it is the constant fear of falling into a crevice created from an earth tremor, I don't really know, but at all times of the day, and in all weathers, people are running - some with backpacks, probably full of their work clobber, or the odd water bottle in case of dehydrating, but no-one seems to stroll anywhere. 

The result, of course, is supremely evident in the biggest sets of calf and thigh muscles I have see in my life. And I previously lived in what I thought was the capital of 'LEGS', Hobart, Tasmania. But, I was wrong, it is Wellington, and probably all New Zealand, which would win the banner of the best legs in the world. And not just that, they are intrepid. I've said it before, but if I were to be shipwrecked anywhere  in the world and I could choose a companion, it would be a Kiwi, preferably male. I know then I would be safe and would get out alive, for that is the stuff the people on these far distant islands are made of. 

Above two photos of excellent glass bus shelters in Courtenay Place, necessarily quite enclosed against the weather.

 Back to 'The Butler', a recent US release in which Oprah Winfrey shows her political colours, and which is not such a great success, in spite of a starry cast and workable story about racial rights in America told credibly and importantly from the black person's perspective. 

However it labours a little under its expectations, showing the arrival of an ex-slave cotton picker coming to work at The White House as a butler for a series of US Presidents. Some of the actors are a bit of a stretch, like Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower. As with so many American movies, the schmaltz over-rides the grisley facts of the race riots in Birmingham Alabama, King's assassination and more. The butler loses his well educated son to the black cause, while being the 'house negro' to his white 'betters'.  But he finally learns from his son to be his own man.

The plot is weighed down with subplots of his wife's affair and drinking problem where it could have spent more time on the main issue of those amazing years in American history. Forest Whitaker as the eponymous lead for me just didn't cut it, but it was worth it to see English actor Alan Rickman play Ronald Reagan and especially Jane Fonda in a small cameo role who reincarnates Nancy Reagan to a T. She would have loved playing her nemesis I'm sure. A film certainly worth seeing from the historical pov.   Three stars.

Btw, the Lighthouse number 3 cinema was a cosy thirty armchair size, and before each session the always  extremely personable and articulate young usher, yes, they still have ushers, welcomes the guests and politely reminds them all to turn off their cell phones, then wishes them happy viewing. Nice touch.