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SPINNING INTO BUTTER Send This Review to a Friend
Yes, the United States has elected an African-American president, but who would argue that there still are not strains of racism in our country? “Spinning into Butter,” based on a play by Rebecca Gilman, retains relevancy in its film version, even though it was made before the last election. As co-scripted by Gilman and Doug Atchison and directed by Mark Brokaw, the film is distinguished by being an in-your-face drama entirely about racism. There’s no concealed message or partial dealing with the issue. Racism is put front and center from start to finish, a feat unusual in contemporary movie making.
Sarah Jessica Parker gives an especially astute and meaningful performance as Sarah Daniels, the dean of students at an elite New England college. It is much more revealing of deeper talent than required in her entertaining role on “Sex and the City,” not to denigrate that accomplishment. But here she is portraying a complicated woman who left teaching at a largely African-American college in Chicago for what she hoped would be calmer territory, but the racism she had to confront in herself previously despite her liberalism follows her into her new position with explosive results.
The situation is triggered by two events. She tries to help a young man of Puerto Rican descent but born in New York City, Patrick Chibas as excellently portrayed by Victor Rasuk, get a scholarship and with all good intention dissuades him from listing Nuyorican has his ethnicity for fear it would cause problems. He agrees to list Puerto Rican instead, and the compromise backfires on Daniels.
The conflict comes against a background of a racial incident on campus. Student Simon Brick, played with the required complexity by Paul James, receives racist notes, and also a brick is thrown through his dorm window. Daniels believes in meeting the issue head on and informs the police, which infuriates Miranda Richardson, the college dean, who wants to keep the matter hushed. To her consternation, the media is soon all over the place and the minority students on campus erupt in a fury. The administration, which includes Beau Bridges as dean of the humanities department and James Rebhorn as president, think a forum on race is a good idea and are portrayed over the top in what some will perceive as caricature—whites who are hypocritical, insensitive bad guys.
Mykelti Williamson is superb in the charismatic role of Aaron Carmichael, an African-American TV reporter who becomes friendly with Daniels in a relationship through which dialogue about race is presented. The film isn’t cheapened by having a diversion of their hopping into bed together, although it is clear that there is a personal as well as an intellectual attraction. The scenes in which they hash out and reveal themselves personally are as compelling as they are unusually candid.
Some may recoil at such an outspoken, no-holds-barred film that doesn’t conceal its attitudes but tries to make the most of what it has to say about personal prejudices concerning race contrasting with efforts to gloss over the deeply-engrained issue. “Spinning Into Butter” (you’ll learn the meaning of the title in the course of the drama) has the courage of its convictions, and the lead performances measure up to the task with equal courage in their portrayals. A Screen Media Films release
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