At one time kicked around as a potential awards contender last fall, when it emerged that the politically charged, quirky indie comedy "Butter" didn't quite have the same juice as something like "Little Miss Sunshine," The Weinstein Company pushed the movie to their 2012 calendar. And now, almost a full year since it debuted on the festival circuit, it's headed to theaters and the first trailer has dropped. And you know what? It looks pretty delightful.
The story follows Laura (Jennifer Garner), the wife of former butter sculpting champion Bob (Ty Burrell) with aspirations for poliitical office, who tries to take the mantle from her husband only to be thwarted by a young adopted African American girl Destiny (Yara Shahidi), who has discovered that she has a natural talent for making art out of butter. But among this synopsis is a political allegory of the 2008 Democratic primaries, with Laura and Bob are obviously Hillary and Bill Clinton, with the the young African girl playing the Barack Obama figure in the story. And then there's Olivia Wilde as the stripper Brooke, who is some kind of Monica Lewinsky-esque figure as long as we're looking for parallels.
But all that stuff aside, this looks like some pretty amusing stuff all around. Garner looks great as the aw-shucks woman looking for power, and Wilde seems to be having a blast playing both sexy and bad. But the real highlight might be Rob Corddry as the father of Destiny. Word out of the festival screenings pointed to his turn as one that was a standout, offering a shade of warmth to his usually sharp comic image, and that seems to be on display here.
"Butter" churns on October 5th — watch below.